Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg ( be, Майсей Якаўлевіч Гінзбург, russian: Моисей Яковлевич Гинзбург; ,
Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...
– 7 January 1946,
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
) was a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
constructivist architect, best known for his 1929
Narkomfin Building in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
.
Biography
Education
Ginzburg was born in
Minsk
Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative stat ...
into a Jewish architect's family. He graduated from
Milano
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ha ...
Academy (1914) and
Riga Polytechnical Institute (1917). During
Russian Civil War
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Russian Civil War
, partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I
, image =
, caption = Clockwise from top left:
{{flatlist,
*Soldiers ...
he lived in the
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...
, relocating to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in 1921. There, he joined the faculty of
VKhUTEMAS and the Institute of Civil Engineers (which eventually merged with
Moscow State Technical University).
Ideologist of Constructivism
The founder of the
OSA Group (Organisation of Contemporary Architects), which had links with
Vladimir Mayakovsky and
Osip Brik's
LEF Group, he published the book ''Style and Epoch'' in 1924, an influential work of architectural theory with similarities to
Le Corbusier's
Vers une architecture
''Vers une architecture'', recently translated into English as ''Toward an Architecture'' but commonly known as ''Towards a New Architecture'' after the 1927 translation by Frederick Etchells, is a collection of essays written by Le Corbusier (C ...
. It was effectively the manifesto of Constructivist Architecture, a style which combined an interest in advanced technology and engineering with socialist ideals. The OSA experimented with forms of Communal apartments to provide for the new
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
way of life. Its magazine SA (Sovremennaya Arkhitektura, or Contemporary Architecture) featured discussions of city planning and communal living, as well as the futuristic projects of
Ivan Leonidov
Ivan Ilyich Leonidov (russian: Иван Ильич Леонидов; 9 February 1902 – 6 November 1959) was a Soviet constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher.
Early life
Leonidov was raised on an isolated farmstead in t ...
. The group was dissolved in the early 1930s into an 'All-Union Association of Architects', along with the competing Modernist group
ASNOVA, led by
Nikolai Ladovsky, and the proto-Stalinist
VOPRA.
Communal houses
The first of these was the Gosstrakh apartments (Malaya Bronnaya Street, Moscow), designed in 1926, one of which was rented by
Sergei Tretyakov: these flats were the first employment of
Le Corbusier's 'Five Points of Modern Architecture' in the USSR. A similar structure was built to Ginzburg's 1928 design in
Sverdlovsk (21, Malysheva Street, completed 1932).
This was followed three years later by the
Narkomfin Building, a 'social condenser' which tried to embody socialist and principles in its structure.
The apartment blocks were built for employees of the Commissariat of Finance (or 'Narkomfin'), and featured collective facilities, roof gardens and a parkland setting. The Narkomfin building was acknowledged by
Le Corbusier as an influence on his
Unité d'Habitation, while the layout of its duplex apartments have been copied by
Moshe Safdie in his Expo 67 flats, as well as by
Denys Lasdun in his luxury flats at St James', London.
In 1928, Ginzburg also designed the Government Building in
Alma-Ata (now, University of Alma-Ata), completed in 1931. In the early 1930s, he concentrated more on urban planning projects, from utilitarian (
Ufa city plan) to utopian ("Green City" contest entry, for a large residential area on the outskirts of Moscow). He was also a Soviet delegate to the
CIAM from 1928 to 1932.
Career in 1930s
Like other avant-garde artists with limited practical experience, Ginzburg fell out of favor in 1932, when the state took control of architectural profession and steered it in favor of
eclectic
Eclectic may refer to:
Music
* ''Eclectic'' (Eric Johnson and Mike Stern album), 2014
* ''Eclectic'' (Big Country album), 1996
* Eclectic Method, name of an audio-visual remix act
* Eclecticism in music, the conscious use of styles alien to th ...
, revivalist
stalinist architecture. Actual demotion of Ginzburg and other constructivists became a gradual process that extended until the end of the 1930s. He never returned to Moscow or
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
practice, but left a contribution in
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a p ...
and Central Asia and retained his own architectural workshop until his death. His new books on ''Home'' (Жилище) and ''Industrializing housing construction'' (Индустриализация жилищного строительства) were printed in 1934 and 1937; since 1934, Ginzburg was the editor of an encyclopedic ''History of Architecture''.
In the early 1930s, Ginzburg was involved in planning of Crimean Coast, designed a number of resort hotels and sanatoriums; only one of them was built in
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk (russian: Кислово́дск, lit. ''sour waters''; ; krc, Ачысуу) is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Population:
Histor ...
(1935-1937). Ginzburg's workshop was also employed by the Ministry of Railways and designed a whole range of model stations for Central Asian and Siberian railroads. Their projects, publicized in the late 1930s, are not as bold as the 1920s avant-garde but are definitely modernist in appearance.
In the 1940s, Ginzburg produced the reconstruction plan for post-war
Sevastopol
Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
(never materialized) and designed two resort buildings that were completed in
Kislovodsk
Kislovodsk (russian: Кислово́дск, lit. ''sour waters''; ; krc, Ачысуу) is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas.
Population:
Histor ...
and
Oreanda after his death.
Legacy
His most famous work, the Narkomfin Building, having been without maintenance for decades, was on
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
's endangered buildings list. Previous proposals to rebuild Dom Narkomfin into a hotel (designed by Ginzburg's grandson) were barred by legal uncertainty over the status of the site. As of 2019, Dom Narkomfin was under careful restoration to become once again a private residential complex. The goal was to restore the building as close to its original state as possible; restoration was completed in 2020.
Narkomfin has been the subject of Victor Buchli's study of Soviet material culture, ''Archaeology of Socialism'' (Berg, 2000), which traces the building's history from early
Utopianism
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island soci ...
to the harshness of the Stalinist era, up to its ruined state in the 1990s.
See also
*
Constructivist architecture
Constructivist architecture was a constructivist style of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. Abstract and austere, the movement aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space, while ...
*
Le Corbusier
*
Joseph Karakis
Joseph Karakis (or ''Iosif Karakys''; uk, Йо́сип Ю́лійович Кара́кіс; 29 May 1902 – 23 February 1988) was a Ukrainian Soviet architect, urban planner, painter and teacher, and one of the most prolific
Ukraininan
Kyiv ...
*
El Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
*
Konstantin Melnikov
*
Hannes Meyer
*
Vladimir Tatlin
Vladimir Yevgrafovich Tatlin ( – 31 May 1953) was a Russian and Soviet painter, architect and stage-designer. Tatlin achieved fame as the architect who designed The Monument to the Third International, more commonly known as Tatlin's Tower, wh ...
*
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is kno ...
*
Alexander Vesnin
References
Sources
*
Berkovich, Gary. Reclaiming a History. Jewish Architects in Imperial Russia and the USSR. Volume 2. Soviet Avant-garde: 1917–1933. Weimar und Rostock: Grunberg Verlag. 2021. P. 15.
* Ginés Garrido: ''Moisei Gínzburg. Escritos 1923-1930''. Madrid: El Croquis editorial 2007
* ''Russian: Ginzburg's railroad designs'' - И.Г.Явейн, "Проектирование железнодорожных вокзалов", М, 1938
* ''Historia de la Arquitectura Moderna'', Leonardo Benévolo, Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.A., 1996
* ''Ciudad rusa y ciudad soviética'', Vieri Quilici, Editorial Gustavo Gili, S.A., 1978
* ''Regional and City Planning in the Soviet Union'', H. Blumenfeld, 1942
* ''La Montaña Mágica'',
Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
External links
Campaign for the Preservation of the Narkomfin BuildingThe Art Newspaper on the NarkomfinPhotographs of Kislovodsk Sanatorium designed by Ginzburg (with later alterations)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ginzburg, Moisei
Russian avant-garde
Soviet architects
Constructivist architects
Modernist architects
Soviet non-fiction writers
Soviet male writers
20th-century male writers
Soviet Jews
Jewish architects
Russian architects
Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne members
Riga Technical University alumni
Vkhutemas faculty
Belarusian Jews
People from Minsk
1892 births
1946 deaths
Modernist architecture in Russia
20th-century non-fiction writers
Male non-fiction writers