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Constructivist Architecture: Moisei Ginzburg (1892-1946)

Moisei Ginzburg was a Russian architect who founded the Organization of Contemporary Architects in 1925 to explore communist ideas in housing design. He believed architecture should be designed to meet the needs of the working class rather than the wealthy. His theoretical platform called for radical changes to existing architectural concepts and using technical data and mathematical solutions to design buildings. One of Ginzburg's most famous works was the Narkomfin Building in Moscow, which was designed to bring aspects of communal village life to the city through shared facilities and an emphasis on interaction between residents. Constructivist architecture in the 1920s-1930s in the USSR aimed to design efficient, functional buildings suited to their social purposes.

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Pushkaraj Kshirsagar
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360 views9 pages

Constructivist Architecture: Moisei Ginzburg (1892-1946)

Moisei Ginzburg was a Russian architect who founded the Organization of Contemporary Architects in 1925 to explore communist ideas in housing design. He believed architecture should be designed to meet the needs of the working class rather than the wealthy. His theoretical platform called for radical changes to existing architectural concepts and using technical data and mathematical solutions to design buildings. One of Ginzburg's most famous works was the Narkomfin Building in Moscow, which was designed to bring aspects of communal village life to the city through shared facilities and an emphasis on interaction between residents. Constructivist architecture in the 1920s-1930s in the USSR aimed to design efficient, functional buildings suited to their social purposes.

Uploaded by

Pushkaraj Kshirsagar
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Constructivist Architecture

Moisei Ginzburg (1892-1946)


Style and Epoch published in 1929 is an
attempt to formulate a new architectural
language, adequate to the new social
reality in which the basic consumer of
architecture is the laboring class.
Ginzburg founded the Organization of Contemporary Architects (OSA) in 1925 with architect
Alexander Vesnin. This organization explored Communist ideas within housing such as apartments.
Their theoretical platform had three goals: radical transformation of current architectural concepts,
command of the latest technical data, and form, which was derived from a mathematical solution of
correctly stated problem.
These three goals were the basis of constructivist architecture and what Ginzburg believed in for
the future of architecture. The group eventually receded in the 1930s as constructivist architecture
also disbanded.
Constructivist Architecture 1920s-1930s
The Narkomfin was part
of Russias constructivist
movement. The architect,
Moisei Ginzburg, built
Narkomfin to solve the
most pressing problem of
urban planninghow to
avoid the isolation that
comes with living in a
city.
He wanted to replicate
the community of a village
in the city. He designed a
six-story apartment block
and added on all things
the inhabitants would
need for daily living.
Narkomfin, Moscow 1929
There was a library and a shop, a communal kitchen
and dining room, even a rooftop solarium for
Moscows short, hot, summer. And there were
meeting rooms to allow the people to meet together.
The corridors to the flats were big, wide and open,
to encourage people to see them as the village street,
and stop and talk with their neighbors. The result was
a six-story blueprint for communal living as
ingenious as it is humane.
Narkomfin, Moscow 1929
Narkomfin, Moscow 1929
Le Corbusiers 5 points of modern architecture
Gosstrakh Apartments, Moscow 1926
The Gosstrakh Apartments were
designed for the employees of the
Gosstrakh state insurance
organization in 1926.
This building also combined
apartments with communal
facilities.
The first use of Le Corbusiers Five
Points of Modern Architecture in
the USSR.
Gosstrakh Apartments, Moscow 1926
In the machine there are no elements that are disinterested
from the standpoint of aesthetics. There are no so-called free
flights of fancy. Everything in it has a definite and clear-cut
constructive task.
Architectural methods should resemble those of the inventor, which means abandoning the
recourse to borrowings from the past, whether in the field of architectural form or spatio-
funtional solutions. Research in architecture, as in any other field, should aim at organizing
and formulating practical tasks which are dictated by the age and valid for the future.
Constructivists, beware of becoming another aesthetic schoolConstructivism
must become a higher form of engineering for our whole life.
What does all this mean?
!"#$%&'
Clnzburg, Molsel. SLyle and Lpoch. new ?ork: 1he lnsuLuLe for ArchlLecLure and urban
SLudles and Lhe Massachuseus lnsuLuLe of 1echnology, 1982.
8rumeld, Wllllam C. Lncyclopedla of 1wenueLh CenLury ArchlLecLure. 1aylor & lrancls,
2004.
kopp, AnaLole. ConsLrucuvlsL ArchlLecLure ln Lhe uSS8. new ?ork: SL Marun's ress,
1983.

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