INTRODUCTION 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. The ruined cities await new builders[…] To you who accept the legacy of Russia, … Continue reading
Much as Le Corbusier did by releasing snippets of his Toward an Architecture through his journal L’esprit Nouveau, co-published with the Purist painter Amédée Ozenfant, I plan to release excerpts from my forthcoming thesis here on my blog. These are to be more … Continue reading
If there is truly a proletarian concept, it is the word “We.” — Anatoly Lunacharsky The Soviet government in the 1920s was the first in modern history to possess such mammoth power to design living quarters for its population; to determine … Continue reading
The installation of socialist construction, of a new society with different industrial and everyday relations, a society which is gathering momentum amidst our conditions — that is our trump card, the value of which is infinitely large. Continue reading
I can’t seem to find the original Russian anywhere on my hard-drive. If anyone has access to it, I would really appreciate if they would forward it to me. [Originally published as «Итоги и перспективы». Современная архитектура, 1927. № 4/5. с. … Continue reading
Much more later, but for now: First, an excerpt from El Lissitzky’s “‘Americanism’ in European Architecture” (1925): Europe is adopting American principles, developing them in a new way. From this point of view it is interesting that of the huge … Continue reading
The following is a combination of some well-known with numerous rare photographs of the members of the Soviet avant-garde:
Из Строительство Москвы — (1930) — № 1 From Building Moscow — (1930) — № 1 [Pg. 17] Москва — столица СССР — стихийно растет и вопрос о необходимости уяснения сути этого роста и его организации для планировки Москвы является основным вопросом ее жизни. Понятие … Continue reading
The modernist movement was alive and well in interwar Germany. Not only at the Bauhaus, which stood at the forefront of the avant-garde, under the leadership of Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer, and Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, but all over … Continue reading
Included in this post is the original issue of Building Moscow (Строительство Москвы), in which the general planning schemes for the proposed “Green City” of Moscow were submitted. Contributors to this competition included some of the premier architects and city-planners … Continue reading