stephanieNY

Going to Moscow last week was like bumping into a bunch of celebrities on the street and snapping their pictures...except that the celebrities were buildings. From the beginning of the semester, we have been looking at the Constructivist architecture in Moscow from the early Soviet Union. "Looking at" it in reading and photographs, but then last week in person. Here are some of my paparazzi shots along with antecedent researched shots:

Konstantin Melnikov was Russia's leading avant-garde architect of the early 20th century, and this is his house in Moscow. We got a special tour of the inside from his granddaughter, who now lives in the house. Amazing.

Moisei Ginzburg's Narkomfin building is/was the model for socialist communal living. It preceded Le Corbusier's duplex apartment plan for Unite d'Habitation for which he gets so much credit. We were promised a special tour of this as well, but it never happened. Shoot.

Shukhov's Radio Tower was the first ever hyperboloid structure and was built in 1920 to broadcast the Soviet message over Moscow. Each structural member is straight and connects the circular rings at an angle, creating the slight curves in profile, and thus being a hyperoloid. Genius.

This was the first communal housing block in Moscow. Often two families and as many as eight people shared one room in this place. Now, rooms and apartments have been combined.

Workers Clubs were big during communist times as places of culture, entertainment, and community. You would go to work at the factory together, commune at a workers club for meetings and shows, and then go home to sleep in your shared quarters. This one was designed by Melnikov, the man with the round house with the hexagon windows. Those are three theaters jutting out of the front as you can imagine.

Full photo albums of the trip are to come, as soon as I can determine whether some pictures that I lost days three and four can be recovered. Fingers crossed.