Le Corbusier in the USSR (1928-1931)

Posted by Ross Wolfe

Moscow is a factory for making plans, the Promised Land of technicians (without a Klondike). The country is being equipped!

— Le Corbusier, “The Atmosphere of Moscow” (1930)

This post includes pictures of Le Corbusier traveling in the USSR, attending conferences, building sites, and on one of Eisenstein’s movie sets (for The Old and the New).

Le Corbusier unveiling the model of his proposal for the Palace of the Soviets (1931)

Model of Le Corbusier’s proposal for the Palace of the Soviets (1931)

Le Corbusier inspecting the building site for his Tsentrosoiuz projects (1930)

Le Corbusier with builders working on his Tsentrosoiuz projects (1930)

Urbanistic overview of Le Corbusier’s plans for the Palace of the Soviets (1931)

Le Corbusier with Sergei Eisenstein and Andrei Burov (1928)

Le Corbusier sitting with Soviet modernist architect Andrei Burov (1928)

Le Corbusier working with an assistant in modeling his Palace of the Soviets proposal (1930)

Le Corbusier sitting in front of the construction site for the Tsentrosoiuz building (March 1931)

Le Corbusier standing in front of a traditional wooden Russian peasant house (1928)

Model of Le Corbusier’s proposal for the Palace of the Soviets competition (1931)

Le Corbusier standing next to a Russian peasant woman (1928)

Model of Le Corbusier and Nikolai Kolli’s Tsentrosoiuz (completed 1933)

Le Corbusier and Nikolai Kolli, Tsentrosoiuz (completed 1933)

Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931)

Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931)

Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931)

Interior to Le Corbusier’s Palace of the Soviets (1931)

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“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, to you who will (I believe!) tomorrow become masters of the whole world, I address the question: with what fantastic structures will you cover the fires of yesterday?” ⎯ Vladimir Maiakovskii, “An Open Letter to the Workers” (1918)

“Utopia transforms itself into actuality. The fairy tale becomes a reality. The contours of socialism will become overgrown with iron flesh, filled with electric blood, and begin to dwell full of life. The speed of socialist building outstrips the most audacious daring. In this lies the distinctive character and essence of the epoch.” ⎯ I. Chernia,“The Cities of Socialism” (1929)

“The idea of the conquest of the substructure, the earthbound, can be extended even further and calls for the conquest of gravity as such. It demands floating structures, a physical-dynamic architecture.” ⎯ El Lissitzky, The Reconstruction of Architecture in the Soviet Union (1929)