The Narkomfin Building is a block of flats at 25,
Novinsky Boulevard
Novinskiy Boulevard is a street in Presnenskiy and Arbat districts of Moscow. On June 3rd, 2020, 2 men from the Russian city of Barnaul, staged a picket in support of the George Floyd Protests, outside of the U.S Embassy building. They were brie ...
, in the
Central district of
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 ...
, Russia. Conceived as a "transitional type of experimental house", it is a renowned example of
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 ...
and
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
housing design.
Though a listed "Cultural Heritage Monument" on the
Russian cultural heritage register
The national cultural heritage register of Russia (russian: Единый государственный реестр объектов культурного наследия) is a registry of historically or culturally significant man-made immovab ...
, it was in a deteriorating state for many years. Many units were vacated by residents. A reconstruction, which lasted more than three years, was completed in the summer of 2020, with the official opening of the renovated apartment building took place on 9 July.
Architecture for collective living
The project for four planned buildings was designed by
Moisei Ginzburg
Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg ( be, Майсей Якаўлевіч Гінзбург, russian: Моисей Яковлевич Гинзбург; , Minsk – 7 January 1946, Moscow) was a Soviet constructivist architect, best known for his 1929 ...
with Ignaty Milinis in 1928. Only two were built, completed in 1932. The color design for the buildings was created by
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
student
Hinnerk Scheper
Hinnerk Scheper, (born 6 September 1897 in Wulften ( Badbergen); district of Bersenbrück/Osnabrück), as 'Gerhard Hermann Heinrich Scheper; died 5 February 1957 in Berlin) was a German colour designer, mural painter, architectural colorist, non- ...
.
This apartment block, designed for high rank employees at the Commissariat of Finance (shortened to
Narkomfin
The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (russian: Министерство финансов РСФСР), known prior to 1946 as the People's Commissariat for Finance (russian: Народный комиссар ...
) was an opportunity for Ginzburg to try out many of the theories advanced by the Constructivist
OSA group
The OSA Group (Organization of Contemporary Architects) was an architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active from 1925 to 1930 and considered the first group of constructivist architects. It published the journal ''SA'' (''Sovre ...
between 1926 and 1930 on architectural form and collective living. The building is made from reinforced concrete and is set in a park. It originally consisted of a long block of apartments raised on
piloti
Pilotis, or piers, are supports such as columns, pillars, or stilts that lift a building above ground or water. They are traditionally found in stilt and pole dwellings such as fishermen's huts in Asia and Scandinavia using wood, and in ele ...
s (with a penthouse and roof garden), connected by an enclosed bridge to a smaller, glazed block of collective facilities.
[
As advertised by the architects, the apartments were to form an intervention into the everyday life (or ''byt'') of the inhabitants. By offering Communal facilities such as kitchens, creches and laundry as part of the block, the tenants were encouraged into a more ]socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
and, by taking women out of their traditional roles, feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
way of life. The structure was thus to act as a 'social condenser' by including within it a library and gymnasium.
On the other hand, architects of the 1920s had to face the social reality of an overcrowded socialist city: any single-family apartment unit with more than one room would eventually be converted to a multi-family kommunalka
Communal apartments (singular: russian: коммунальная квартира, ''kommunal'naya kvartira'', slang. ''kommunalka'') appeared in the Soviet Union following the October Revolution of 1917. The term ''communal apartments'' is a produ ...
. Apartments could retain the single-family status if, and only if, they were physically small and could not be partitioned to accommodate more than one family. Any single-level apartment could be partitioned; thus, the avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
community (notably, Ginzburg and Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian: Константин Степанович Мельников; – November 28, 1974) was a Russian architect and painter. His architectural work, compressed into a single decade (1923–33), placed ...
) designed such model units, relying on vertical separation of bedroom (top level) and combined kitchen and living room (lower level). Ilya Golosov
Ilya Alexandrovich Golosov (Russian: Илья Александрович Голосов; 31 July 1883 – 21 January 1945) was an architect from the late Russian Empire and early Soviet Union. A leader of Constructivism in 1925-1931, Ilya Golos ...
implemented these cells for his Collective House in Ivanovo
Ivanovo ( rus, Иваново, p=ɪˈvanəvə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Russia. It is the administrative center and largest city of Ivanovo Oblast, located northeast of Moscow and approximately from Yaroslavl, Vlad ...
, and Pavel Gofman for communal housing in Saratov
Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgograd. Saratov had a population of 901,36 ...
. Ginzburg refined their cell design based on real-life experience.
Vertical apartment plan
Narkomfin has 54 units, none of them has a dedicated kitchen - at least, legally. Many residents partitioned their apartments to set aside a tiny kitchen. There are five inhabited floors, but only two corridors on second and Fifth level (an apartment split between third and second level connects to the second floor corridor, etc.).
Apartments were graded by how far along they were to being 'fully collectivised', ranging from rooms with their own kitchens to apartments purely for sleep and study. Most of the units belong to "Cell K" type (with double-height living room) and "Cell F" connecting to an outdoor gallery. The sponsor of the building, Commissar of Finance Nikolay Alexandrovich Milyutin
Nikolay Alexandrovich Milyutin, alternatively transliterated as Miliutin (russian: Николай Александрович Милютин, – 4 October 1942) was a Russian trade union and Bolshevik activist, participant in the October Rev ...
, enjoyed a penthouse (originally planned as a communal recreation area). Milyutin is also known as an experimental city planner who had developed plans for a linear city Linear city may refer to:
* Linear settlement
* Linear city (Soria design), an 1882 concept of city planning
* Linear city (Graves and Eisenman design), a 1965 proposal for a settlement in New Jersey
* The linear city model of Hotelling's law See al ...
.
Influence
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
, who studied the building during his visits to the Soviet Union, was vocal about the debt he owed to the pioneering ideas of the Narkomfin building, and he used a variant of its duplex flat plans in his Unité d'Habitation
{{Infobox company
, name = Moldtelecom
, logo =
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, foundation = 1 April 1993
, location = Chişinău, Moldova
, key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim
, num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019
, industry = Telecommunica ...
. Other architects to have reused its ideas include Moshe Safdie
Moshe Safdie ( he, משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author, with Israeli, Canadian, and American citizenship. He is known for incorporating principles of socially responsible desi ...
, in his Expo 67
The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 27 to October 29, 1967. It was a category One World's Fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most su ...
flats Habitat 67
HABITAT 67, or simply Habitat, is a housing complex at Cité du Havre, on the Saint Lawrence River, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. It originated in his master's thesis at the School of Architect ...
and Denys Lasdun
Sir Denys Louis Lasdun, CH, CBE, RA (8 September 1914, Kensington, London – 11 January 2001, Fulham, London) was an eminent English architect, the son of Nathan Lasdun (1879–1920) and Julie ('' née'' Abrahams; 1884–1963). Probably his ...
, in his luxury flats in St James', London. The idea of the 'social condenser Informed by the ideologies of Soviet Constructivist theory, the Social Condenser is an architectural form defined by its influence over spatial dynamics. In the opening speech of the inaugural OSA Group conference in 1928, Moisei Ginzburg claimed ...
' was also acknowledged by Berthold Lubetkin
Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (14 December 1901 – 23 October 1990) was a Georgian-British architecture, architect who pioneered International style (architecture), modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. His work includes the Highpoint I, Hi ...
an influence on his work.
The Narkomfin building as reality
The 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 society ...
and reformism of everyday life that was behind the building's idea fell out of favour almost as soon as it was finished. After the start of the Five Year Plan and Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...
's consolidation of power, its collectivist and feminist ideas were rejected as 'Leftist' or Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
. In the 1930s, the ground floor, which was originally left free and suspended with pilotis, was filled with flats to help alleviate Moscow's severe housing shortage, while a planned adjoining block was built in the eclectic Stalinist style.
The building looks over the US embassy, which has discouraged the inhabitants from using the roof garden. The vicissitudes of the building were charted in Victor Buchli's book ''An Archaeology of Socialism'' which takes the flats and their inhabitants as a starting point for an analysis of Soviet 'material culture'.
Modern status
Legally, each apartment unit in the building was privatized (beginning in 1992) by the residents. Later, a real estate speculator bought out a significant proportion of the apartments, as a consolidated apartment package with the city MIAN agency. The rest were still owned and inhabited by the residents, but with MIAN dominance creating a legal stalemate where the residents were unable to form a condominium association and operate the building independently. Therefore, the city agency had control over the future of the Narkomfin building.
By 2010, the building was in a very dilapidated state, although it was still partially inhabited. UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
placed it at the top of their 'Endangered Buildings' list, and it was placed on the World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...
's watchlist of endangered heritage sites three times. An international campaign was launched to save the landmark. Despite the Russian "Cultural Heritage Monument" code prohibiting any major re-planning of internal walls and partitions, there were accusations that illegal renovations were taking place. Alexei Ginzburg, grandson of Moisei Ginzburg, stated that "The situation asout of control" in 2014.
In 2016, the building began renovation under the guidance of Alexei Ginsburg, after development company Liga Prav bought it from an auction. Renovation was completed in July 2020, with the original designs restored where possible and all later additions removed.
![Narkomfin fall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Narkomfin_fall.jpg)
Gallery
Image:Narkomfin building 2020-07.jpg, Building after restoration.
Image:Narkomfin_Building_Moscow_2007_01.jpg, View from east, Garden Ring
The Garden Ring, also known as the "B" Ring (russian: Садо́вое кольцо́, кольцо́ "Б"; transliteration: ''Sadovoye Koltso''), is a circular ring road Avenue (landscape), avenue around central Moscow, its course correspondin ...
Image:Narkomfin_Building_Moscow_2007_02.jpg, View from west
Image:Dom Narkomfin under renovation.jpg, Renovation work in progress
Image:Narkmomfinfoto2.jpg, Building in 1930s
Image:Narkonfin-apartments-moscow-russia-architects-ginsburg-m-milinis-i-1928-1929-photograph-photographer-robert-byron3.png, Building in 1930s
References
External links
Moscow Architecture Preservation Society Profile
The Art Newspaper on the Narkomfin
.
{{Authority control
Apartment buildings
Buildings and structures in Moscow
Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union
Russian avant-garde
Architecture related to utopias
Residential buildings in Russia
Residential buildings completed in 1932
Constructivist architecture
Modernist architecture in Russia
Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow