THE SOVIET AVANT-GARDE — INTERNATIONAL REFLECTIONS OF THE OSA-ASNOVA (CONSTRUCTIVIST-RATIONALIST) SPLIT THE EFFICACIOUS VS. THE AESTHETIC In his landmark structural analysis of the antinomical tendencies existing within Russian culture (broadly termed “Culture One” and “Culture Two”),[1] Vladimir Paperny locates a … Continue reading
Download Ross Wolfe’s “The Graveyard of Utopia: Soviet Urbanism and the Fate of the International Avant-Garde” Comrades! The twin fires of war and revolution have devastated both our souls and our cities. The palaces of yesterday’s grandeur stand as burnt-out skeletons. … Continue reading
The Disurbanists proposed small but accommodating individual housing units, or “pods,” which would moreover be mobile and collapsible. Continue reading
The unique spatiotemporal dialectic of the capitalist mode of production formed the basis for the major architectural ideologies that arose during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Continue reading
In July 1929, the economist Leonid Sabsovich sparked a debate regarding the future of Soviet urbanism with an article he wrote for Плановое Хозяйство (Planned Economy), entitled «Проблема города» (“The Problem of the City”). Sabsovich was convinced that the major … Continue reading
“The skyscrapers here are much too small.” — Le Corbusier, upon arriving in Manhattan (1935) Continue reading
The story of Le Corbusier is more than that of modern architecture’s greatest protagonist. It is the story of modern architecture itself. Continue reading
Some photos I took at the international Le Corbusier symposium a couple days ago. Continue reading
Designed in 1927 by Moisei Ginzburg this is one of the earlier projects to absorb Le Corbusierian modernist principles. It was a prototype for revolutionary communes to come, aimed at reforming the everyday life of Russian citizens together with their spatial environment, but its utopian aims were soon annihilated by the rise to power of Stalin. Continue reading
The great Le Corbusier rendered in color. Continue reading