Constructivism in art. What is constructivism

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Constructivism is a trend in Soviet art of the 1920s. (in architecture, design and theatrical and decorative art, poster, book art, artistic design). Proponents of constructivism, putting forward the task of "designing" the environment that actively guides life processes, sought to comprehend the shaping possibilities of new technology, its logical, expedient designs, as well as the aesthetic possibilities of such materials as metal, glass, wood. The constructivists sought to oppose the ostentatious luxury of everyday life with the simplicity and emphasized utilitarianism of new objective forms, in which they saw the reification of democracy and new relations between people (the Vesnin brothers, M. Ya. Ginzburg, etc.). The aesthetics of constructivism largely contributed to the formation of Soviet artistic design (A. M. Rodchenko, V. E. Tatlin and others). In relation to foreign art, the term is arbitrary: in architecture it is a trend within functionalism, in painting and sculpture it is one of the trends of avant-garde. In architecture, the principles of constructivism were formulated in the theoretical speeches of A. A. Vesnin and M. Ya. Ginzburg, practically they were first embodied in the project of the Palace of Labor for Moscow created by the brothers A. A., V. A. and L. A. Vesnin (1923 ) with its clear, rational plan and the constructive basis of the building (reinforced concrete frame) identified in the external appearance. In 1924, a creative organization of constructivists, the OSA, was created, whose representatives developed the so-called functional design method, based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, and urban complexes. Along with other groups of Soviet architects, constructivists (the Vesnin brothers, Ginzburg, I. A. Golosov, I. I. Leonidov, A. S. Nikolsky, M. O. Barshch, V. N. Vladimirov, etc.) searched for new principles plans of populated areas, put forward projects for the reorganization of life, developed new types of public buildings (Palaces of Labor, Houses of Soviets, workers' clubs, kitchen factories, etc.). At the same time, in their theoretical and practical activities, the constructivists made a number of mistakes (treatment of the apartment as a “material form”, schematism in the organization of life in some projects of communal houses, underestimation of climatic conditions, underestimation of the role of large cities under the influence of the ideas of deurbanism).

The aesthetics of constructivism in many ways contributed to the development of modern artistic design. On the basis of the developments of constructivists (A. M. Rodchenko, A. M. Gan and others), new types of utensils, fixtures, and furniture were created that were easy to use and designed for mass production; artists developed designs for fabrics (V. F. Stepanova, L. S. Popova) and practical models of work clothes (Stepanova, V. E. Tatlin). Constructivism played a significant role in the development of poster graphics (photomontages by the Stenberg brothers, G. G. Klutsis, Rodchenko) and book construction (the use of the expressive possibilities of type and other typesetting elements in the works of Gan, L. M. Lissitzky and others). In the theater, the constructivists replaced traditional scenery with “machines” subordinated to the tasks of stage action for the work of actors (works by Popova, A. A. Vesnin, and others on the productions of V. E. Meyerhold, A. Ya. Tairov). Some ideas of constructivism were embodied in the Western European (W. Baumeister, O. Schlemmer and others) fine arts.

As applied to foreign art, the term "constructivism" is largely arbitrary: in architecture it denotes a trend within functionalism that sought to emphasize the expression of modern structures; Pevzner) Constructivism (from lat. constructio - construction) is an artistic trend in the art of a number of European countries at the beginning of the 20th century, which proclaimed not composition, but construction, as the basis of the artistic image. Constructivism found its fullest expression in architecture, design, applied design, theatrical decorative art, printed graphics, book art; expressed in the desire of artists to turn to the design of things, the artistic organization of the material environment. In the artistic culture of Russia in the 1920s, the constructivist architects, the Vesnin brothers and M. Ginzburg, relied on the possibilities of modern building technology.

They achieved artistic expressiveness by compositional means, by comparing simple, concise volumes, as well as by the aesthetic possibilities of materials such as metal, glass, and wood. The artists of this trend (V. Tatlin, A. Rodchenko, L. Popova, E. Lissitzky, V. Stepanova, A. Exter), having joined the movement of industrial art, became the founders of Soviet design, where the external form was directly determined by function, engineering design and material processing technology. In the design of theatrical performances, the constructivists replaced the traditional pictorial scenery with transformable “machines” that change the stage space. The constructivism of printed graphics, the art of the book, and the poster is characterized by stingy geometrized forms, their dynamic layout, a limited color palette (mainly red and black), and the widespread use of photography and typesetting typographic elements.

Characteristic manifestations of constructivism in painting, graphics and sculpture are abstract geometrism, the use of collage, photomontage, spatial structures, sometimes dynamic. The ideas of constructivism matured in the previous directions of the Russian avant-garde. His program, which was formed in the post-revolutionary period, bore the features of a social utopia, since artistic design was conceived as a way of transforming social life and people's consciousness, designing the environment.

Constructivism. The direction of abstract art, which originated in Russia in 1913. Constructivism discarded traditional ideas about art in the name of imitation of the forms and methods of the modern technological process. This was most clearly manifested in sculpture, where the structure was created directly from the products of industrial production. In painting, the same principles were implemented in a two-dimensional space: abstract forms and structures were placed on a plane like an architectural drawing, reminiscent of elements of machine technology. Although constructivism existed in Russia only in the first post-revolutionary years, its influence was felt throughout the 20th century. see Gabo, Lissitzky, Mohoy-Nagy, Popova, Rodchenko, Tatlin About the poetic movement In terms of its principles, theoretical platform, the breadth of the creative views of its participants, and, finally, in terms of the duration of its existence, constructivism could well claim to be considered an independent literary movement . The poetic principles declared (and implemented) by the constructivists in practice, unlike many pseudo-independent poetic groups of that time, really differed in “faces with a non-general expression”.

In addition, constructivism put forward many well-known names. And yet, it is usually not customary to single out constructivism as a separate poetic trend. Perhaps because he was too utilitarian (meaning "applied") character. In contrast to the tasks of this trend in other areas of art, which put forward the idea of constructing the material environment surrounding a person in order to create simple, logical, functionally justified forms (architectural projects of the Vesnin brothers, M. Ginzburg, I. Leonidov; posters, books, theatrical scenography of artists A. Rodchenko, V. Tatlin, L. Lissitzky), in poetry, constructivism manifested itself in an orientation towards a rational “construction of material” instead of an intuitively found style. However, another explanation is possible. It has already been said above that one of the "mandatory" conditions for the formation of a new poetic trend was the presence of an "external enemy" - the point of application of the creative efforts of the members of the group, in the struggle against which the formation took place. The constructivists, by and large, had no one to argue with, except themselves. Sluggish attacks on futurism could hardly deceive anyone, since the “construction” of a poetic text goes back to the principles proclaimed by the ideologist of futurism F. Marinetti, who sought to reflect the dynamism of modern machine civilization and technical progress. True, for this purpose the futurists used somewhat different means, resorting more to experimenting with vocabulary and syntax. However, the methods were very similar - the transfer of the center of gravity from the image of a person to the image of his material and technical environment.

The constructivists as an independent literary group first announced themselves in Moscow in the spring of 1922. The first members were poets A. Chicherin, I. Selvinsky and critic K. Zelinsky (group theorist). Initially, the program of the constructivists had a narrowly formal orientation: the principle of understanding a literary work as a construction came to the fore. In the surrounding reality, technical progress was proclaimed the main one, the role of the technical intelligentsia was emphasized. Moreover, this was interpreted outside social conditions, outside the class struggle. In particular, it was stated: “Constructivism, as an absolutely creative school, affirms the universality of poetic technique; if modern schools, separately, cry out: sound, rhythm, image, zaum, etc., we, emphasizing and, say: And the sound, And the rhythm, And the image, And zaum, And every new possible device in which the real necessary when installing a structure Constructivism is the highest skill, deep, exhaustive knowledge of all the possibilities of the material and the ability to thicken in it. But in the future, the constructivists gradually freed themselves from these narrowly defined aesthetic frameworks and put forward broader justifications for their creative platform. It was the representatives of modernism who took the most active part in the literary and artistic life of the country in those years, and many of them turned out to be by no means unwitting conductors of the political ideology that dominated that era. Here, for example, is the opinion of a well-known illustrator from the association of the so-called “production book” O. Chichagova: “In essence, constructivism denies art as a product of bourgeois culture. Constructivism is an ideology that arose in proletarian Russia during the revolution, and like any ideology, it can be viable and not built on sand only when it creates a consumer for itself; and therefore - the task of constructivism is the organization of communist life through the creation of a constructive person. The means to this are intellectual production - invention and improving production - technology. That is, there was a substitution of concepts: the methodology of constructivism was now placed in direct dependence on ideological principles. Here the first disagreements arose, in connection with which Chicherin departed from constructivism, and a number of authors grouped around Selvinsky and Zelinsky: B. Agapov, Dir Tumanny (N. Panov), V. Inber, E. Gabrilovich. In 1924, the Constructivist Literary Center (LCC) was organized. Later they were joined by N. Aduev, V. Lugovskoy, A. Kvyatkovsky, V. Asmus, E. Bagritsky, N. Ognev, N. Ushakov, as well as a group of young poets: V. Gusev, G. Katz, I. Koltunov, A. Kudreiko (Zelenyak), K. Mitreikin, L. Lavrov, and others, jokingly referred to as "Konstromolets". At first, the meetings of the constructivists took place alternately in the apartments of one of the members of the LCC, and from 1927 they began to gather in the “Herzen House” on Tverskaya Street (d. 25). First of all, the LCC Declaration stated that “constructivism is thought and social mentality ordered into a system, which emphatically reflects the organizational onslaught of the working class,” and then spoke about the need for art to have the closest possible participation of constructivists in the construction of socialist culture. From this arises the attitude to saturate art (in particular, poetry) with modern themes. Declaration of the Literary Center of Constructivists (LCC) The main provisions of constructivism.

1. The nature of modern production technology, rapid, economic and capacious, also influences the methods of ideological representations, subordinating all cultural processes to these internal formal organizational requirements.

The expression of this increased attention to technical and organizational issues is constructivism.

2. Here, in the USSR, constructivism acquires a broad social and cultural meaning, due to the need in a relatively short time to cover the distance separating the proletariat, as a culturally backward class, from modern high technology and the entire developed system of cultural superstructures, which, in an increasingly throughout the world of class struggle, are used by the bourgeoisie, also as technical instruments of struggle.

3. The organizational design of this task is constructivism.

4. Thus, constructivism is thoughts and social mindsets ordered into a system, which emphatically reflect the organizational onslaught of the working class, forced in a peasant country, after gaining power, to build an economy and lay the foundation of a new socialist culture.

5. This onslaught in the field of culture rushes mainly on its technique in all areas of knowledge and skill, starting with the simple acquisition of literacy.

6. The carrier of the constructivist (i.e., assertive organizational) and cultural movement should be, first of all, the proletariat, and then the intermediate social groups under the ideological and political influence of the proletariat.

7. Constructivism, transferred to the field of art, formally turns into a system of maximum exploitation of the theme, or into a system of mutual functional justification of all the constituent artistic elements, that is, in general, constructivism is a motivated art.

8. Formally, such a requirement rests on the so-called principle of cargoification, i.e., an increase in the load of needs per unit of material.

9. Right-wing social strata, intellectuals and petty-bourgeois groups adapt the formal requirements of constructivism as aesthetic trenches for sitting out in them from the onslaught of revolutionary modernity, seeking to gain a foothold in the artistic theme. Then constructivism turns into a special easel genre, that is, an unmotivated demonstration of the technique. This is equally true of painting and poetry. For the left social strata, this demand for maximum exploitation is naturally merged with the search for a great epochal theme and a tight form for it, which, by the logic of the plot, introduces prose techniques into the realm of poetry.

10. The principle of cargoification, as applied to poetry, turns into a requirement for constructing poems in terms of local semantics, i.e., deploying the entire texture of the verse from the main semantic content of the theme.

11. The Literary Center of the Constructivists (LCC), which has made the aforementioned provisions its banner, is an organizational association of people united by the common goals of communist construction and whose task, through joint, practical study of the formal-technical and theoretical aspects of constructivism, is to give literature and, in particular, poetry, in today's cultural environment, effective meaning. Constructivists consider it necessary in their literary work to actively reveal revolutionary modernity both thematically and in its technical requirements.

In order to give this topic maximum effectiveness, constructivists put forward the principle of “cargoification” of the word, i.e., its maximum “densification”. This is achieved with the help of “local semantics”, which consists in concentrating all the visual and expressive means of the verse around the main semantic content of the theme “[B. Agapov in the poem“ Typist Topchuk ”comparisons, epithets, etc. are taken from clerical life:“ eyebrows , as the signature of the director of the trust”; in N. Panov’s poem about General Kornilov, the rhythm imitates a drum march, etc.], as well as by “introducing prose techniques into the field of poetry”, if this is dictated by the logic of the plot (for example, Selvinsky’s “Report”, or he has a series calculations and technical terms in "Pushtorg"). It also sharply criticized "right-wing social strata, intellectual and petty-bourgeois groups that adapt the formal requirements of constructivism as aesthetic trenches for sitting out in them from the onslaught of revolutionary modernity." Such a slide from the realm of art into the realm of ideology could not but affect the fate of constructivism as a poetic movement.

And although the LCC still claims a leading role, declaring: “Constructivism is replacing futurism both as a literary school and as a nihilistic worldview. Futurism has done its job. He was the grave-digger of bourgeois decadentism in the pre-revolutionary years. In its new guise - LEF, futurism continues its old work - the fight against the rotten rump. But the new literature, the new socialist culture will no longer be created by his hands. This new culture creates its own new style, its own new methods, and these are the methods of constructivism,” but in recent years the program of the constructivists in many ways resembled the program of the LEF they criticized.

The constant sharp criticism of the constructivists by Marxist theorists led in 1930 to the liquidation of the LCC and the formation of the "Literary Brigade of M. I", which became part of the Federation of Soviet Writers' Associations (FOSP), which carried out "unification of various writers' groups wishing to actively participate in the construction of the USSR and those who believe that our literature is called upon to play one of the responsible roles in this area. In 1930, the Constructivist Literary Center, sensing the coming harsh changes, disbanded itself. In the early 1930s, the political situation in the country, and, consequently, in art, changed to a large extent. Innovative currents were first subjected to sharp criticism, and then they were completely banned, like ... bourgeois ones. As the constructivist M. Ginzburg correctly wrote, each era has its own style of art. The romantic-utopian, strict and revolutionary asceticism was replaced by the magnificent forms of the totalitarian baroque and the arrogant redundancy of Stalin's neoclassicism. The following fact seems strange - in the USSR there was a struggle against “right angles”, against “bourgeois formalism”, against “Leonidism”, and palaces in the style of Louis XIV began to be considered completely proletarian. The constructivists were in disgrace. Those of them who did not want to "rebuild" eked out a miserable existence until the end of their days (or even were repressed). However, Ilya Golosov, for example, managed to fit into the conjuncture of the 1930s and was able to create really interesting buildings. The Vesnin brothers also participated in the creative life of the USSR, but they no longer had such authority as before. According to some authoritative scientists in the USSR in 1932-1936. there was a "transitional style", conditionally called "post-constructivism". In the 1960s, when the struggle against "architectural excesses" began, they again remembered the developments of the constructivists. The study of their heritage has become mandatory for young architects. And since the early 1990s, many of the unrealized ideas of the 1920s have become a reality. An example is the shopping complex "Three Whales" on the Minsk highway (made in the spirit of the twenties), a variety of luxury housing in Moscow and other buildings of a modern metropolis. constructivism soviet art avant-garde

At the beginning of the 21st century, constructivism returns to architecture again. Now it is called Scandinavian, since its roots lie in the suburban housing construction of the Scandinavian countries. Scandinavian constructivism is characterized by an abundance of space and sunlight, functionality and simplicity, naturalness and naturalness. It has a given rhythm of lines and strict geometry. It is characterized by the aesthetics of expediency, the rationality of strictly utilitarian forms. To date, Scandinavian constructivism has taken root most widely in Russia, in St. Petersburg. The architectural concept of Scandinavian constructivism is considered the most organic for country houses near the Northern Capital.

In St. Petersburg, the predominance of cloudy weather leads to a lack of sunlight. This problem is solved due to the large areas of glazing and spacious rooms in houses characteristic of Scandinavian constructivism. The rhythm of the lines and the emphasized rigor of geometry give the houses made in the style of Scandinavian constructivism their own unique look, while simplicity and naturalness, coupled with the use of natural materials, provide an attractive architectural solution. Such houses organically fit into the country landscape and are close in spirit to the aristocratic Petersburgers.

2. Constructivism in architecture

Significant progress in the 20-30s. 20th century reached architecture. The rapid growth of cities, industry, and the development of transport come into sharp conflict with the layout of old cities, which do not meet the new requirements, with their narrow, winding streets. The need to solve the complicated problem of transport services and provide normal sanitary and living conditions for the population, give rise to urban planning projects and new forms of resettlement of people. They are characterized by a desire to soften social contrasts in cities and eliminate excessive concentration of the population. Around large cities in some countries garden cities with individual residential buildings, industrial cities, workers' settlements, etc., with a strictly functional division of the territory, arise. The attention of architects was attracted by the tasks of not only industrial, but also mass housing construction, the development of residential complexes with economical standard apartments designed for the middle and low-paid category of people. More attention is paid to the design of districts, the architectural design of landscapes. A universal classification of streets and the principles of their combination are being developed, networks of city highways are being created, independent of transitional streets and cutting the city into a number of separate spaces. In the design of cities of a new type and large industrial enterprises, the principles of the functional-constructive system, which originated at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, are increasingly being established. This style of architecture is called constructivism. In the history of Russian constructivism, professional architects designed all kinds of modular structures of residential units, interconnected into large complexes, elevators moving along the outer walls, etc. Konstantin Melnikov is considered the coryphaeus of Russian (Soviet) constructivism. Starting with the construction of Russian pavilions at International Exhibitions in the style of traditional wooden architecture, thanks to which he gained international fame, Melnikov moves on to designing very relevant buildings of a new (revolutionary) type and purpose - workers' clubs. Club them. Rusakov, built by him in 1927-28, has nothing in common either with the architecture of the previous century or with Art Nouveau architecture. Here, purely geometric concrete structures are organized into a certain structure, the shape of which is determined by its purpose.

The last remark applies to almost all modern and 20th century architecture and is defined as functionalism. In the architecture of constructivism, functionalism leads to the creation of dynamic structures, consisting of fairly simple formal elements, completely devoid of the usual architectural decor, connected in accordance with the organization of the internal space and the work of the main structures. The language of architectural forms is thus "cleared" of everything unnecessary, decorative, non-constructive. It is the language of a new world that has broken with its past.

The emerging architectural image clearly conveys the dynamics of artistic processes and life in post-revolutionary Russia, the rapture of modern technical possibilities. The architects of the constructivism style believed that all elements of the building, even such as signs, clocks, billboards, loudspeakers, elevator shafts, etc., should take part in creating the architectural image of a modern building, so the architect should also design all of them. The Soviet constructivists focused their efforts on two major tasks: designing an exemplary socialist city and communal multi-apartment housing for workers - communal houses. Meeting the new needs of the socialist state, the constructivists were engaged in the design and construction of such types of buildings as offices, department stores, sanatoriums, printing houses, research centers, plants and factories, workers' clubs and hydroelectric power stations. The young Soviet architecture of the first post-revolutionary decades was really at the forefront of world architecture, implementing or creating on paper the most daring projects, including the famous Palace of Soviets, which could not be built on the site of the destroyed Cathedral of Christ the Savior. With the advent of Stalinist totalitarianism in the 30s, Russia is gradually losing its positions in architecture, and so far they have not been restored. An important milestone in the development of constructivism was the activity of talented architects - the brothers Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin. They came to realize a laconic "proletarian" aesthetic, already having a solid experience in building design, in painting and in book design. (They started their career back in the Modern era).

For the first time, constructivist architects loudly declared themselves at the competition for projects for the building of the Palace of Labor in Moscow. The Vesnins' project was distinguished not only by the rationality of the plan and the correspondence of the external appearance to the aesthetic ideals of our time, but also implied the use of the latest building materials and structures. The next stage was the competitive design of the building of the newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" (Moscow branch). The task was extremely difficult - a tiny piece of land was intended for construction - 6 × 6 m on Strastnaya Square. The Vesnins created a miniature, slender six-story building, which included not only an office and editorial premises, but also a newsstand, a lobby, a reading room (one of the tasks of the constructivists was to group the maximum number of vital premises in a small area). The closest associate and assistant of the Vesnin brothers was Moses Yakovlevich Ginzburg, who was an unsurpassed theorist of architecture in the first half of the 20th century. In his book Style and Age, he reflects that each style of art adequately corresponds to "its" historical era. The development of new architectural trends, in particular, is due to the fact that "... continuous mechanization of life" is taking place, and the machine is "... a new element of our life, psychology and aesthetics." Ginzburg and the Vesnin brothers organize the Association of Modern Architects (OSA), which includes leading constructivists. Since 1926, the constructivists began to publish their own magazine - "Modern Architecture" (or simply "CA)". The magazine has been published for five years. The covers were designed by Aleksey Gan. In the late 1920s, constructivism began to spread outside the Soviet Union, becoming most widespread in Germany and the Netherlands. In the mid-60s - 70s, the traditions and ideas of constructivism found an unexpected continuation in the architecture of the so-called "high-tech", a direction that demonstratively exposes not only the work of architectural structures, but also engineering communications.

3. Constructivism in design and photography

Constructivism is a direction that is primarily associated with architecture, however, such a vision would be one-sided and even extremely wrong, because, before becoming an architectural method, constructivism existed in design, printing, and artistic creativity. Constructivism in photography is marked by the geometrization of the composition, shooting from dizzying angles with a strong reduction in volume. Such experiments were carried out, in particular, by Alexander Rodchenko.

In graphic forms of creativity, constructivism was characterized by the use of photomontage instead of hand-drawn illustration, extreme geometrization, subordination of the composition to rectangular rhythms. The color scheme was also stable: black, red, white, gray with the addition of blue and yellow. In the field of fashion, there were also certain constructivist trends - in the wake of the global passion for straight lines in clothing design, Soviet fashion designers of those years created emphatically geometrized forms. Among fashion designers, Varvara Stepanova stands out, who, since 1924, together with Lyubov Popova, developed fabric designs for the 1st cotton-printing factory in Moscow, was a professor at the textile faculty of VKhUTEMAS, and designed models of sports and casual clothes. The most famous fashion model of those years was the notorious Lily Yuryevna Brik.

Avant-garde architecture was decades ahead of its time. In Russia, awareness of the value of this heritage did not come even after 80 years. Constructivism has to be protected from barbaric reconstructions and demolitions, while all over the world it has long been recognized as the most important contribution to the world culture of the 20th century. Stars of world architecture: Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman - since the 1970s and 80s have been talking about the unconditional influence of the Soviet avant-garde on their work. At least three generations of architects have changed, for whom constructivism is the ABC of modern architecture, and the projects of Leonidov, Ginzburg, Melnikov, the Vesnin brothers, Chernikhov are an international heritage that inspires to this day with its freedom and fearlessness.

For a story about the basic principles of Soviet architecture of the 1920s - early 1930s, we chose one building from different cities of the country: in addition to the desire to get away from the well-known and repeatedly described metropolitan examples, we wanted to show the scale of the movement in architecture, which covered one sixth of the world .

1. Building-machine: Kushelevsky bakery

Illustration from the book "Architectural graphics of the era of constructivism." SPb., 2008

Illustration from the article by T. V. Tsareva “Automated bakeries of the system of engineer G. P. Marsakov: form and function”, collection “Khan-Magomedov readings”. M., St. Petersburg, 2015

St. Petersburg, st. Polytechnic, 11
Georgy Marsakov, 1932

At the turn of the 1920s and 30s, engineer Georgy Marsakov invented a rigid ring conveyor, thanks to which a completely new type of mechanized bakery appeared. Flour from the fourth floor, descending along the circular conveyor chain, was kneaded into dough, which fermented, cut and baked in circular ovens, and the finished bread was loaded down inclined slopes into the bread storage - all without the use of manual labor. According to the patented scheme, seven bakeries were built in Moscow and Leningrad. The hybrid of the vertical (flour lifting conveyor) and ring conveyors had no analogues in the world and in a few years completely solved the problem of bread supplies in Moscow and Leningrad.

This project expresses the main idea of constructivism about the complete fusion of form and function. The factory building is a machine in the truest sense of the word, and the engineering beauty of the production scheme is reflected in the expressive cylindrical volumes of the facade. Despite the common patented system, the buildings were slightly different, so the “cases” of all bakeries are different. The Kushelevsky plant is one of the most expressive: the boiler room, warehouse, administrative premises are located in semi-circular and cylindrical volumes rising by ledges, grouped around the main massif. The powerful verticals of the staircase and pipes set off this rotation, and the bakery itself looks like a monumental sculpture.

2. Compositional freedom: Rusakov club

thecharnelhouse.org

Moscow, st. Stromynka, 6
Konstantin Melnikov, 1929

The new era has generated a request for a completely new typology of buildings. Churches are being replaced by clubs - universal cultural and educational centers, to some extent inheriting the typology of pre-revolutionary people's houses people's house- public cultural and educational institutions of the late XIX - early XX century, intended for children and adults. Usually included libraries, theater and concert halls, study rooms, a Sunday school, a tea room, etc.. Konstantin Melnikov, the most expressive and brilliant representative of the Soviet architectural avant-garde, is primarily known for the projects of six clubs, each of which can be considered a manifesto. Melnikov argued that in the new architecture there is no place for established methods and forms. Triangles, sharp corners, overhanging volumes - he removed all the taboos of previous eras.

The internal structure of the club of the communal services trade union (workers of the nearby tram depot) resembles a mouthpiece, where in its narrow part there is a stage, in the middle part there is a parterre, and the wide one is divided into three amphitheatres, hanging with consoles over the main facade. With the help of descending walls, these hanging volumes could be cut off inside for autonomous work of circles and meetings. Unfortunately, the machinery invented by Melnikov for each of the clubs was never implemented: his technical requirements were ahead of time, and the transforming buildings worked only at half strength. Despite this, Rusakov's club, which shocked contemporaries with its unprecedented forms, continues to amaze with absolute compositional freedom and innovation even now.

3. Savings: a residential building of Uraloblsovnarkhoz

Photo courtesy of Nikita Suchkov

Cell type F. Development of the typing section of the Stroykom of the RSFSR. 1928

Illustration from Modern Architecture magazine, No. 1, 1929

Yekaterinburg, st. Malysheva, 21/1
Moses Ginzburg, Alexander Pasternak, Sergei Prokhorov; 1933

"Being determines consciousness" - that is why, since the beginning of the 1920s in the USSR, both government and architects paid special attention to designing a new type of housing. The image of a house organized according to the principle of a universal mechanism, where life is maximally socialized and simplified, of course, was inspired by the ideas of Le Corbusier. But if the latter managed to implement his concepts on a large scale only in the post-war years, his followers in the USSR, paradoxically, were able to do it much earlier. Experimental communal houses and transitional houses built at the turn of the 1920s and 30s included, in addition to residential premises, the entire infrastructure: laundries, nurseries and kindergartens, canteens. This was supposed to save the woman from housework. In addition, for the first time on such a scale, the question of standardization, ergonomics and savings was raised - materials, spaces, energy.

Designed by Moisei Ginzburg, the residential cell type F, used by him in the Narkomfin building in Moscow and then repeated in Sverdlovsk, is a two-level apartment, where, due to the half-height in the sleeping area, the hallway and the bathroom, one common corridor (hall) is obtained in the house, service living two floors. In the house of the Uraloblsovnarkhoz, cells F are arranged in a dormitory building with office space on the ground floor and a dining room with a terrace on the last, seventh. The dining room is connected by a passage to the neighboring building, where there is a kindergarten and a solarium (a place for sunbathing) on the roof. Tape windows ribbon window- the conquest of avant-garde architecture, made possible thanks to reinforced concrete frames that unloaded the walls of buildings. The characteristic narrow horizontal windows became a symbol of 1920s architecture both in the Soviet Union and in Europe. Their popularity was so great that often such windows were even imitated, for example, in brick houses - by painting the window piers in a dark color., flat roof, reinforced concrete frame and the possibility of changing the layout - the five principles of Le Corbusier's modern architecture are partially realized (there are not enough pillars instead of the first floor). Despite the later alterations (the built-up loggia of the upper floor), the house-ship still looks much more modern than other houses of the 2000s.

4. Symbol: Factory-kitchen of the Maslennikov plant

thecharnelhouse.org

Illustration from L. Kassil's book "Delicious Factory". M., 1930

Samara, st. Novo-Sadovaya, 149
Ekaterina Maksimova, 1930-1932

The factory-kitchen is another new typology of the 1920s and 30s, along with the bathhouse, the commune and the club, which was conceived as the most important tool for the emancipation of women. In the spirit of the era, this is not just a canteen, but a food factory that could provide factories with ready-made meals, a club and a sports center. In the 1920s, architecture becomes a new kind of propaganda and education: buildings loudly announce their function, in fact advertising a new way of life. For the first time in Russia, speaking architecture appears: buildings-airplanes, tractors, steamships, demonstrating their progressiveness, dynamism, and functionality. The kitchen factory in Samara, located in the same row, is famous for its hammer and sickle plan. The sign could only be seen from above, from an airplane - which is typical of the era of the "flying proletarian". However, the author (which is also important - a woman architect) found a functional justification for an uncomfortable form. From the hammer, where the kitchen was located, the prepared dishes were to be delivered along three conveyors to the sickle, where there were dining rooms with a panoramic view. In the hammer's handle were all the additional club rooms - the gym, club rooms, a reading room. The building is also known for its bold design solution: cantilever reinforced concrete ceilings, which made it possible to use continuous glazing of half-cylinder staircases. The factory-kitchen was extensively rebuilt in the 1940s and 1990s, the facades changed, but the general layout structure remained the same. VHUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops) is an educational institution in Moscow. It included eight faculties: architectural, painting, sculptural, printing, textile, ceramics, woodworking and metalworking. VKhUTEMAS teachers at different times were Konstantin Melnikov, Alexei Shchusev, the Vesnin brothers, Wassily Kandinsky, Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Favorsky and others.(a basic course aimed at studying the basics of composition and design) taught to abstract forms and look for plastic expression for the ideas of movement, weight, lightness, etc. It is this program that is still included in the training courses on the basics of architectural design.

The theater in Rostov-on-Don, designed by Leningrad architects of the old school, is a visual aid to the plasticity of the avant-garde. The technique of contrasting deaf and glazed surfaces, heavy and light, straight and rounded, rough and thin, is naked to the limit, and most importantly, the theater is best perceived in motion. A lapidary, monumental cube with two halls, a theater and a concert hall, is placed on the transparent volume of the vestibule. On the sides, large glazed vertical volumes of stairwells with long passages, galleries, which visually support the heavy deaf "forehead" of the theater, are taken out. Two wide strips of continuous glazing of the galleries on the sides of the main volume are supported by the rigid vertical rhythm of the pillars. Semi-circular ramps for cars dive under galleries-transitions from the sides of the main facade, emphasizing the best angles for viewing. The building is usually associated with a caterpillar tractor, but such a literal association undeservedly simplifies the architects' idea.

It is characterized by rigor, geometrism, conciseness of forms and monolithic appearance.

In architecture, the principles of constructivism were formulated in the theoretical speeches of A. A. Vesnin and M. Ya. Ginzburg, practically they were first embodied in the project of the Palace of Labor for Moscow created by the brothers A. A., V. A. and L. A. Vesnin (1923 ) with its clear, rational plan and the constructive basis of the building (reinforced concrete frame) identified in the external appearance.

Owenhatherley, Public Domain

In 1926, the official creative organization of the constructivists, the Association of Modern Architects (OCA), was created. This organization was the developer of the so-called functional design method, based on the scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, urban complexes. Characteristic monuments of constructivism are kitchen factories, labor palaces, workers' clubs, communal houses.

In relation to foreign art, the term "constructivism" is largely arbitrary: in architecture it denotes a trend within functionalism, which sought to emphasize the expression of modern structures, in painting and sculpture it is one of the avant-garde trends that used some formal searches for early constructivism (sculptors I. Gabo, A . Pevzner).

During this period, the constructivist literary movement also existed in the USSR.

The emergence of constructivism

Constructivism is considered to be a Soviet phenomenon that emerged after the October Revolution as one of the directions of the new, avant-garde, proletarian art, although, like any phenomenon in art, it cannot be limited to one country. So, the forerunner of this style in architecture was the Eiffel Tower, which combines elements of both Art Nouveau and naked constructivism.

As Vladimir Mayakovsky wrote in his essay on French painting: “For the first time, not from France, but from Russia, a new word of art flew in - constructivism ...”

In the context of the incessant search for new forms, which meant the oblivion of everything "old", innovators proclaimed the rejection of "art for art's sake". From now on, art was supposed to serve production, and production - the people.

Most of those who later joined the constructivist movement were ideologists of utilitarianism or the so-called "production art". They called on artists to "consciously create useful things" and dreamed of a new harmonious person who uses convenient things and lives in a well-organized city.

Thus, one of the theorists of "production art" Boris Arvatov wrote that “... they will not portray a beautiful body, but will educate a real living harmonious person; not to draw a forest, but to grow parks and gardens; not to decorate the walls with paintings, but to paint these walls ... "

“Production art” became nothing more than a concept, but the term constructivism itself was uttered precisely by the theorists of this direction (in their speeches and brochures, the words “construction”, “constructive”, “construction of space” were also constantly encountered).

In addition to the above direction, the formation of constructivism was greatly influenced by futurism, suprematism, cubism, purism and other innovative trends in the visual arts of the 1910s, however, it was precisely “production art” with its direct appeal to modern Russian realities of the 1920s that became the socially conditioned basis. (epochs of the first five-year plans).

The birth of the term

The term "constructivism" was used by Soviet artists and architects as early as 1920: Alexander Rodchenko and Vladimir Tatlin, the author of the project of the Third International Tower, called themselves constructivists. For the first time, constructivism was officially designated in the same 1922 in the book of Alexei Mikhailovich Gan, which was called “Constructivism”.

Gosznak, Public Domain

A. M. Gan proclaimed that "... a group of constructivists sets as its task the communist expression of material values ... Tectonics, construction and texture are the mobilizing material elements of industrial culture."

That is, it was explicitly emphasized that the culture of the new Russia is industrial.

Constructivism in architecture

In 1922-1923, in Moscow, which began to recover after the Civil War, the first architectural competitions were held (for the projects of the Palace of Labor in Moscow, the building of the Moscow branch of the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper, the building of the Arkos joint-stock company), in which architects, Moisei Ginzburg, the Vesnin brothers, Konstantin Melnikov, Ilya Golosov and others, who began their creative path even before the revolution. Many projects were filled with new ideas, which later formed the basis of new creative associations - constructivists and rationalists. Rationalists created the association "ASNOVA" (Association of New Architects), whose ideologists were architects Nikolai Ladovsky and Vladimir Krinsky. Constructivists, on the other hand, united in the OCA (Association of Modern Architects), headed by the Vesnin brothers and Moses Ginzburg. The key difference between the two currents was the question of the perception of architecture by a person: if the constructivists attached the greatest importance to the functional purpose of the building, which determined the design, then the rationalists considered the function of the building to be secondary and sought to take into account, first of all, the psychological characteristics of perception.

The constructivists saw it as their task to increase the role of architecture in life, and this should have been facilitated by the denial of historical continuity, the rejection of the decorative elements of classical styles, the use of a functional scheme as the basis of spatial composition. The constructivists were looking for expressiveness not in the decor, but in the dynamics of simple structures, verticals and horizontals of the structure, freedom of the building plan.

Early constructivism

The activity of talented architects - the brothers Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin - had a great influence on the design of constructivist public buildings. They came to realize a laconic "proletarian" aesthetic, already having a solid experience in building design, in painting and in book design.

The next stage was the competitive design of the building of the newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" (Moscow branch). The task was extremely difficult - a tiny plot of land was intended for construction - 6 × 6 meters on Strastnaya Square. The Vesnins created a miniature, slender six-story building, which included not only an office and editorial premises, but also a newsstand, a lobby, a reading room (one of the tasks of the constructivists was to group the maximum number of vital premises in a small area).

The closest associate and assistant of the Vesnin brothers was Moses Ginzburg. In his book Style and Age, he reflects that each style of art adequately corresponds to "its" historical era. The development of new architectural trends, in particular, is connected with what is happening "...continuous mechanization of life" and the car is "... a new element of our life, psychology and aesthetics." Ginzburg and the Vesnin brothers organize the Association of Modern Architects (OSA), which includes leading constructivists.

Since 1926, the constructivists began to publish their own magazine - "Modern Architecture" ("SA"). The magazine has been published for five years. The covers were designed by Aleksey Gan, Varvara Stepanova and Solomon Telingater.

Rise of constructivism

Architects of mature constructivism used a functional method based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, urban complexes. Thus, ideological-artistic and utilitarian-practical tasks were considered together. Each function corresponds to the most rational space-planning structure (the form corresponds to the function).

novdan , Public Domain

On this wave, the constructivists are fighting for the "purity of the ranks" and against the stylistic attitude towards constructivism. In other words, the leaders of the OCA fought against the transformation of constructivism from a method into a style, into an external imitation, without comprehending the essence. So, the architect Grigory Barkhin, who created the Izvestia House, was attacked.

In the same years, the constructivists were fascinated by the ideas of Le Corbusier: the author himself came to Russia, where he fruitfully communicated and collaborated with the leaders of the OCA.

Among the OCA, a number of promising architects are being promoted, such as the brothers Ilya and Panteleimon Golosov, Ivan Leonidov, Mikhail Barshch, Vladimir Vladimirov. Constructivists are actively involved in the design of industrial buildings, kitchen factories, cultural centers, clubs, residential buildings.

Svetlov Artem, CC BY-SA 3.0

The most common type of public buildings, which embodied the basic principles of constructivism, were the buildings of clubs and houses of culture. An example is the house of culture of the Proletarsky district of Moscow, better known as the Palace of Culture ZiLa; construction was carried out in 1931-1937 according to the project of the Vesnin brothers. When creating the project, the authors relied on the well-known five principles of Le Corbusier: the use of pillars instead of massive walls, free planning, free design of the facade, elongated windows, and a flat roof. The volumes of the club are emphatically geometric and are elongated parallelepipeds, into which the projections of stairwells and cylinders of balconies are embedded.

A characteristic example of the implementation of the functional method was the communal houses, the architecture of which corresponded to the principle expressed by Le Corbusier: "a house is a machine for living." A well-known example of buildings of this type is the dormitory-commune of the Textile Institute on Ordzhonikidze Street in Moscow. The author of the project, implemented in 1930-1931, was Ivan Nikolaev, who specialized mainly in industrial architecture. The idea of a communal house presupposed the complete socialization of everyday life. The concept of the project was proposed by the students themselves; the functional scheme of the building was focused on creating a rigid daily routine for students. In the morning, the student woke up in the living room - a sleeping cabin measuring 2.3 by 2.7 m, containing only beds and stools - and headed to the sanitary building, where he passed successively showers, charging rooms, and locker rooms as if on a conveyor belt. From the sanitary building, the tenant went down the stairs or ramp to a low public building, where he went to the dining room, after which he went to the institute or to other premises of the building - halls for team work, booths for individual studies, a library, an assembly hall. In the public building there were also nurseries for children under three years old, and an open terrace was arranged on the roof. As a result of the reconstruction of the hostel carried out in the 1960s, the original plan of a strict daily routine was violated.

A special figure in the history of constructivism is considered to be A. Vesnin's favorite student - Ivan Leonidov, a native of a peasant family, who began his career as a student of an icon painter. His largely utopian, future-oriented projects did not find application in those difficult years. Le Corbusier himself called Leonidov "a poet and hope of Russian constructivism". Leonidov's works still delight with their lines - they are incredibly, incomprehensibly modern.

Constructivism is banned

Even at that time, when constructivism, rationalism and other innovative trends were dominant, they were already opposed by staunch “conservatives”. They defended their right to speak the language of traditional forms originating in ancient Greece, Rome, in the masterpieces of Palladio and Piranesi, Rastrelli and Bazhenov.

The most famous among them are the Leningrad master Ivan Fomin with his “red dorika” and the Moscow architect Ivan Zholtovsky, an admirer of the Renaissance.

In the early 1930s, the political situation in the country, and consequently in art, changed to a large extent. Innovative and avant-garde movements were first subjected to sharp criticism, and then they were completely banned as bourgeois. As the constructivist M. Ginzburg wrote, each era has its own style of art.

The romantic-utopian, strict and revolutionary asceticism was replaced by the magnificent forms of the totalitarian baroque and the arrogant redundancy of Stalin's neoclassicism. The following fact seems strange - in the USSR there was a struggle against “right angles”, against “bourgeois formalism”, against “Leonidism”, and palaces in the style of Louis XIV began to be considered completely proletarian.

The constructivists were in disgrace. Those of them who did not want to "rebuild" eked out a miserable existence until the end of their days (or even were repressed). However, Ilya Golosov, for example, managed to fit into the conjuncture of the 1930s and was able to create really interesting buildings. The Vesnin brothers also participated in the creative life of the USSR, but they no longer had such authority as before.

According to S. O. Khan-Magomedov and A. N. Selivanova, in the USSR in 1932-1936. there was a transitional style, conditionally called "post-constructivism".

Photo gallery

Constructivism in design and photography

Among fashion designers, Varvara Stepanova stands out, who, since 1924, together with Lyubov Popova, developed fabric designs for the 1st cotton-printing factory in Moscow, was a professor at the textile faculty of VKhUTEMAS, and designed models of sports and casual clothes.

The most famous fashion model of those years was the famous Lily Yuryevna Brik.

Constructivism in literature

In 1923, a number of manifestos proclaimed constructivism as a trend in literature (primarily in poetry), and the "Constructivist Literary Center" was created. It was attended by poets Ilya Selvinsky, Vera Inber, Vladimir Lugovskoy, Boris Agapov, literary critics Kornely Zelinsky, Alexander Kvyatkovsky and others. Constructivist writers proclaimed the closeness of poetry to “industrial” topics (characteristic names of collections: “State Planning Committee of Literature”, “Business”), essayism, the widespread use of “prosaisms”, the use of a new meter - tactics, experiments with recitation. By 1930, the Constructivists became the object of harassment by the RAPP and announced their dissolution.

Architects

Vesnin brothers
Moses Ginzburg
Alexander Gegello
Ilya Golosov
Boris Gordeev
Boris Iofan
Joseph Karakis
Mikhail Kondratiev
Le Corbusier
Ivan Leonidov
Oleg Lyalin
Konstantin Melnikov
Vladimir Sherwood - Forerunner of the Constructivists
El Lissitzky

"North wind"

The complex and contradictory era of the beginning of the 20th century left us as a legacy an eternally young revolutionary art - the Russian avant-garde, the most striking manifestation of which was constructivism in architecture. Although constructivism is considered Soviet art, its ideas originated earlier. For example, features of this style can be seen even in the Eiffel Tower. But, of course, in the development of innovative proletarian art, the USSR was ahead of the rest!

The brothers Leonid, Victor and Alexander Vesnin, M. Ya. Ginzburg, K. Melnikov, I. A. Golosov, A. M. Rodchenko, A. M. Gan, V. E. Tatlin, V. F. Stepanova are the most famous artists who developed this style in its various manifestations, such as architecture, aesthetics, design, graphics, painting, photography.

Creative people of the avant-garde era 1920-1930. rejected the principle of "art for art's sake" and decided that from now on it should serve exclusively practical purposes. Geometry, flat roofs, an abundance of glass, non-traditional forms, a complete lack of decor - these are the distinguishing features of this architecture. Constructivism was also a reaction to noble and merchant architecture, haughty, pompous and classically traditional. Unusual in the new buildings were not only the forms, but also the types of these buildings: communal houses, hostels, kitchen factories - all this reflected utopian ideas about a new, revolutionary life, where there is no place for anything bourgeois, individual, but everything is joint, in including life, and even the upbringing of children.

In 1924, Ginzburg and the Vesnin brothers created the OCA (Association of Modern Architects), which included leading constructivists. Since 1926, the constructivists also had their own magazine, which was called "Modern Architecture". It lasted only five years.

V. Paperny, the author of the book "Culture 2" cites an interesting quote: "The proletariat," wrote the author of one of the most extremist projects of those years, "should immediately begin to destroy the family as an organ of oppression and exploitation." And yet, despite the utilitarianism, constructivism is considered a very romantic phenomenon. The fact is that it was here that the wonderful bold, rebellious spirit manifested itself best of all. And, if in life the consequences of this revolutionary spirit are doubtful, then in art it left its unusual and striking mark.

A fresh wind that blew away the merchant's slumber, a bird that, in order to fly, must eat its own meat (a metaphor for the destruction of the old, mentioned by Paperny), northern aspiration to infinity.

These structures, strange even for today, leave a feeling of cold and a soulless, almost lifeless, mechanical world - "barns and barracks".

Here is what M. Ya. Ginzburg wrote about this: "... continuous mechanization of life" is taking place, and the machine is "... a new element of our life, psychology and aesthetics."

Ginzburg and Milinis in 1928-30 built a commune house on Novinsky Boulevard employees of Narkomfin. The house is designed in such a way that you can live in it, so to speak, without interrupting production: several buildings perform different functions. There is a living area, a dining room, a sports hall, a library, a public service building, a nursery, a kindergarten, and workshops.

The main architect of the Russian avant-garde Konstantin Melnikov also tried to unite life, work and creativity in his famous workshop house in Krivoarbatsky lane. An amazing round building with many hexagonal windows seems small. But those who were inside say that the impression is deceptive, Melnikov's house is quite spacious. The architect was very attached to his family and wanted to combine the workshop and living quarters and at the same time improve life as much as possible. At a lecture dedicated to this masterpiece of constructivism, many interesting things were told. For example, what seemed to Melnikov an omission that a person spends so much time idle - in a dream. He worked to find some use for sleep, but never found it.

In the Arbat area there is also the first Soviet skyscraper - the building Mosselprom, painted with Mayakovsky's slogans by Alexander Rodchenko. The house housed warehouses, the administration of Moscow grocery stores, part of the building was residential. In addition to slogans, Rodchenko placed advertising images on the wall: Mishka kosolapy sweets, milk and beer Friend of the Stomach, Herzegovina Flor cigarettes.

The fantasy of the architects was most clearly expressed in the creation of clubs and palaces of culture. In 1927-1928, on the anniversary of the revolution, one of the first workers' clubs was built according to the project of I. A. Golosov - House of Culture named after S. M. Zuev or the Zuev Communal Workers' Trade Union Club, named after a tram depot mechanic who fought on the barricades in 1905. The center of this building with huge windows on Lesnaya Street is a glass cylinder with a staircase inside, which "holds" the entire body of the building and other elements.

The complex composition of Melnikovsky House of Culture named after Rusakov(the original name of the Rusakov Club of the Union of Communal Workers) on the street. Stromynka makes a powerful impression. The House of Culture was named in memory of the head of the Sokolniki organization of the Bolshevik Party I. V. Rusakov. Despite the complexity, the gear-like building looks very solid and dynamic. At first glance, it impresses with its three clearly cut, protruding white ends of auditorium balconies that adjoin the auditorium. Balconies alternate with piers with windows, behind which there are stairs. The hall, which occupies the central part of the club, is also special - it was designed as multifunctional, with the ability to separate it with different partitions. A small but very interesting building that you want to look at from different angles.

And yet, the main goal of the architects who worked in this avant-garde direction was to solve pressing issues, for example, expanding the infrastructure of the city with its growing population. So let's turn our attention from houses of culture to utilitarian buildings - garages, shops, kitchen factories, bakeries.

Bakery No. 5 (Bakery named after Zotov) 1931 worked on Khodynskaya Street until recently. The building was built in 1931-32 according to the project of the architect A.S. Nikolsky and equipped with innovative equipment engineer G. Marsakov, which ensured the production of 50,000 loaves per day. After a fire in 2007, it was decided to move the production complex to the outskirts of Moscow, and open a cultural and business center in the building. It is not clear what will be on the site of this monument ...

Bus park on the street. Obraztsova- one of the most famous creations of K. Melnikov. Melnikov ensured that the finished project of the standard arena type for this garage was replaced with a new one, invented by the architect and more efficient. The metal structures of the roof of the Bakhmetevsky garage are one of the last significant works of engineer V. G. Shukhov. In 2001, the state of the garage was almost threatening, and the building was handed over to the Jewish community, which organized the restoration. Unfortunately, during the restoration part of Shukhov's structures were demolished. By 2008, the repair of the building was completed: the roof and facade were recreated (according to photographs and drawings by Melnikov). Maybe something should have been treated with more attention (for example, obvious traces of European-style repairs do not look at all on a monument from the beginning of the century). But it's still much better than nothing! Now the Bakhmetevsky Garage houses the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art and the Jewish Cultural Center.

Another creation of Melnikov is located near the Bakhmetevsky bus depot. This is a garage for cars of VAO Intourist. It is interesting that Melnikov joined the project only at the last stage - he only needed to decorate the facade, without affecting the layout of the building. The architect imagined the facade as a screen on which cars passing along the internal spiral ramp can be seen. Despite the paradoxical nature of the idea of foreign tourism in a closed state, Melnikov saw this idea in a rosy light: “The path of a tourist is depicted as infinity, starting from a sweeping curve and directing it at a rapid pace upwards into space.”

A new type of building of a new era - a factory-kitchen - along with a communal house, illustrates the ideas of the socialization of everyday life in the best possible way. It was assumed that people would spend very little time in the small rooms of the dormitory, since most of their life would be spent in plain sight, in society: work - at the factory, eat - at the factory-kitchen. Sometimes these establishments were part of the house (residential or industrial premises), sometimes they were located in a separate building. Such is the former factory-kitchen, which, under the motto "Down with kitchen slavery!" built on Leningradsky Prospekt by the architect Meshkov. This kitchen was the first in Moscow and the third in the USSR and produced 12,000 meals a day. In the 1970s, the building was rebuilt - the gallery of the third floor was glazed. To date, there is only one functioning Soviet catering establishment left - a kitchen factory at the MELZ plant, and the building on Leningradsky Prospekt has been occupied by offices, and in general, it looks rather unpresentable, you would never think that this is an architectural monument.

The "leaders" of the new way of life, the creators and propagandists of the new culture, were in a hurry to try out their ideas in practice. House-commune on Gogol Boulevard built for themselves in 1929-1931. under the leadership of Moisei Ginzburg, the same group of architects as the Narkomfin building, which is why he is sometimes called the latter's younger brother. The housing association "Demonstrative Construction" included young architects Mikhail Barshch, Ignatius Milinis, Mikhail Sinyavsky, Vyacheslav Vladimirov, Lyubov Slavina, Ivan Leonidov, Alexander Pasternak, Andrey Burov and others.

Outwardly, this building is far from being as interesting as many other monuments of constructivism, but the ideas that it expresses are the same: the socialization of the life of all residents, the separation of personal space from household needs. The house-commune on Gogolevsky belongs to the so-called transitional type: the dining room, laundry and other household premises are located in separate blocks of the building, and in the apartments, in the form of "petty-bourgeois" concessions, there is a small kitchen, toilet and shower.

The house consists of three separate buildings: a six-story building with apartments for bachelors, a seven-story building with two or three-room apartments for families, and a household building with premises for communal and household needs.

In addition to clubs and garages, bright examples of constructivism are mostorgs- department stores for the proletariat. In contrast to the luxurious "capitalist" shops of the center of Moscow, they were built in working-class areas, for example, mostorg in Maryina Roshcha or Danilovsky. But the very first bridge was erected in the area with a revolutionary name - on Krasnaya Presnya. In 1913-1914, Vladimir Mayakovsky lived at No. 36 on Bolshaya Presnenskaya Street, whose avant-garde and in form and content poetry perfectly reflects the atmosphere of that era. In 1927-1928. brothers A. A., V. A. and L. A. Vesnin built Presnensky Mostorg in the neighborhood (later renamed Krasnopresnensky department store). Thanks to its laconic design and good corner location, it blends in well with the old buildings. During its construction, new, advanced technologies of economical construction were used, and the glazed facade, which looks like one huge showcase, also symbolized the availability of the department store for everyone.

Apparently, the proletarian poet visited the proletarian department store more than once, and he was especially impressed by the shoes he bought there, which he immortalized in his work. If in the “Clothing and Youth Poem” these shoes are just not a very successful acquisition of a simple poor girl:

Rubles
wound up
working daughter
at the proletarian

in a red scarf.

Went to Mostorg.
Selling delight
to her
creepy shoes
fobbed off in Mostorg.
(Vl. Mayakovsky),

then in the work "Love" shoes from Mostorg already serve as an ominous weapon of a jealous woman:

"And they love

faithful nun -

tyrant

jealousy

every trifle

and measures

for revolver caliber

wrong

in the back of the head

empty the bullet.

Fourth -

hero of a dozen battles,

whatever is expensive

in a fright

from his wife's shoes,

a simple Mostorg shoe."

Didn't the shoes turn the girl into a vixen and intimidate the unfortunate warrior-husband? And it looks like children's horror stories: the grandmother said to her granddaughter, do not go to Mostorg, do not buy shoes there. The girl did not obey, bought, got married ... We will never know what terrible qualities the shoes from Mostorg possessed: as a memory of that time, we only have Mayakovsky's poems and the creations of artists and architects of the Russian avant-garde era; in the former Presnensky Mostorg, a completely different trade is now conducted. In 2002, the building was privatized by the Benetton company, which reconstructed it. The showcase façade was refurbished to match the original design of the Vesnins, the 1920s-style MOSTORG sign was restored, but the interiors were less fortunate: there was practically nothing left of them.

Many of the constructivist buildings have survived to our time in a very deplorable state - something dilapidated or completely destroyed, something rebuilt. Palace of Culture of the Automobile Plant named after I. A. Likhachev- in many respects the work is exceptional. This is the very first and largest working club and one of the few well-preserved buildings of that era.

In 1930, a competition was announced for the project of the Palace of Culture of the Proletarsky District, the projects were provided by the majority of architectural associations. No one was chosen as the winner, and the club project was created by the brothers V. A. and A. A. Vesnin, who used the materials of the competition in their work.

Construction began in 1931 and continued until 1937. The place for the grandiose building was not chosen by chance - the territory of the Simonov Monastery. During the implementation of the project, several towers, part of the walls, the main temple were destroyed, and a cemetery was demolished on workers' subbotniks, where representatives of famous noble families were buried. The construction of a workers' palace of culture on the site of an old cemetery had a clear ideological significance and symbolized the victory of the new revolutionary art over "backward" religion, history, and memory.

During the first stage of construction, by the year 33, a small theater building was built; in 1937, during the second stage, the club building was erected. The building, covered with dark plaster, has a large-scale, complex layout, but at the same time it is distinguished by integrity, dynamism, and harmony. The Palace of Culture has several facades: a side one, facing Vostochnaya Street, a northern one, in front of which there is a front square, and a park one, with a semi-rotunda, facing the river. The building provides for a large foyer, a winter garden, an exhibition hall, scientific and technical rooms, lecture and concert halls, a library, an observatory, rooms for the work of circles.

The project, unfortunately, was not fully implemented: the theater building, the park part (they wanted to turn the entire adjacent territory into a park with sports facilities), and a sports complex were never built. But, nevertheless, even now the Palace of Culture makes a surprisingly holistic and positive impression. Despite the tragic past and the "unfortunate" cemetery site, the fate of this monument of constructivism turned out surprisingly well. Like many buildings of that time, it did not escape reconstruction (in the 40s, 50s and 70s), but these were those successful cases when the repair did not greatly violate the general idea and style. For many years since its inception, the ZIL Palace of Culture has been actively functioning, a team of talented teachers has been working in it. It seems that the intention of the creators was successfully embodied and pleases us even now, in a completely different era.

The review included the following buildings:

1. House-commune (Residential complex RZhSKT for construction workers). M. Barshch, V. Vladimirov, I. Milinis, A. Pasternak, S. Slavina, 1929. Gogolevsky boulevard, 8 (m. Kropotkinskaya)

2. Mosselprom. D. Kogan, 1923-1924. Kalashny lane, 2/10 (m. Arbatskaya)

3. House-workshop. K. Melnikov, 1927-1929. Krivoarbatsky lane, 17 (m. Smolenskaya)

4. The building of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture. A. Shchusev, 1928-1932. st. Sadovaya-Spasskaya, 11/1 (metro Red Gate)

5. Factory-kitchen. A. Meshkov, 1928-1929. Leningradsky prospect, 7 (m. Belorusskaya)

6. Residential building of Narkomfin. M. Ginzburg, I. Milins, 1928-1930. Novinsky Boulevard, 25 (m. Barrikadnaya)

7. Mostorg. A., L. and V. Vesnin, 1929. Krasnaya Presnya, 48/2 (m. Street 1905)

8. Bakery No. 5. G. Marsakov, 1932. Khodynskaya, 2, building 2 (m. Street 1905)

9. Bakhmetevsky bus depot. K. Melnikov, 1926-1927. Obraztsova, 19 (m. Novoslobodskaya) - now there is a gallery "Garage".

10. Garage "Intourist". K. Melnikov, 1934. Suschevsky Val, 33 (m. Savelovskaya)

11. Club them. Rusakov. K. Melnikov, 1927-1929. Stromynka, 6 (m. Sokolniki)

13. DK of the ZIL automobile plant. A., L. and V. Vesnin, 1930-1937. Vostochnaya, 4 (m. Avtozavodskaya)

Constructivism is an artistic trend of the 1920s of the twentieth century in architecture, decoration, and theatrical and decorative art, in design.

The age of rapidly developing industry and new technologies has repeatedly accelerated the passage of time. Artists were the first to feel the need to completely change the world around them. The new man of the twentieth century had to live in a world of clear geometric forms; a world free from past pictorial traditions. A working person, actively participating in public life, no longer had time for unhurried contemplation. Speed and manufacturability came first. Buildings, furniture, household items had to be convenient not only for the consumer, but also for the machines that produce them. Universality has become the main criterion in life and art. The human personality turned out to be subordinated to rigid public interests. The objects surrounding a person have also lost their uniqueness.

A house is a machine for living. In this statement, Le Corbusier formulates very clearly the goals and objectives of constructivism. Proponents of constructivism, putting forward the task of "designing" the environment that actively directs life processes, sought to comprehend the possibilities of new technology, as well as the aesthetic possibilities of materials such as metal, glass, and wood. The constructivists sought to oppose the ostentation of luxury with the simplicity and emphasized utilitarianism of new objective forms, in which they saw the reification of democracy and new relations between people.

Constructivism occupies a special place in Russian art. The unique political situation, the victory of the revolution, the construction of a new world completely coincided with the tasks of constructivism.

In architecture, the principles of constructivism were formulated in the theoretical speeches of A. A. Vesnin and M. Ya. Ginzburg. In 1924, a creative organization of constructivists, the OSA, was created, whose representatives developed the so-called functional design method based on a scientific analysis of the features of the functioning of buildings, structures, urban complexes.

Along with other groups of Soviet architects, constructivists (the Vesnin brothers, Ginzburg, I. A. Golosov, I. I. Leonidov, A. S. Nikolsky, M. O. Barshch, V. N. Vladimirov and others) searched for new planning principles populated places. They put forward projects for the reorganization of everyday life, developed new types of public buildings (Palaces of Labor, Houses of Soviets, workers' clubs, kitchen factories, etc.). At the same time, in their theoretical and practical activities, the constructivists made a number of mistakes (treatment of the apartment as a "material form", schematism in the organization of life in some projects of communal houses, underestimation of natural and climatic conditions, underestimation of the role of large cities under the influence of the ideas of deurbanism) .

We can safely say that constructivism reached its peak in Russia in the 1920s. In European architecture, the ideas of constructivism were put into practice by such masters as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Gropius. Supports, roof gardens, free planning, strip glazing, unadorned facades - such principles were formulated by Le Corbusier for the new architecture. Reinforced concrete made it possible to solve many structural problems, giving architects more freedom and room for imagination.

The works of architects in small forms are very interesting. One of the favorite materials in design is metal tubes. Le Corbusier's famous couch is truly versatile. It can be placed by the pool, on the open veranda, in the living room, bedroom. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe treated furniture as mathematical objects. He claimed that he solves the shape of the next object as an equation. But most importantly, the furniture designed in those early years is very popular today.

Some of the ideas of constructivism were embodied in Western European (W. Baumeister, O. Schlemmer and others) fine arts. In relation to foreign art, the term "constructivism" is largely arbitrary: in architecture it denotes a trend within functionalism, which sought to emphasize the expression of modern structures, in painting and sculpture it is one of the avant-garde trends that used some formal searches for early constructivism (sculptors I. Gabo, A . Pevzner)