L’architettura sovietica d’avanguardia: utopie, teorie, pratiche

The course is the logical continuation of the monographic course in the spring semester 2023 on Konstantin Mel’nikov (1890-1974), “the architect of the impossible”. It gives a broad picture of the architectural experiments of the 1920s and early 1930s in the Soviet Union, discussing both built designs and those that remained forever “paper architecture”: from actually built house-communes to the colonization of space, from the propaedeutic course for architecture students at VKhUTEMAS school to the visionary skyscrapers by Leonidov. Focusing on the history of architectural thinking, the course aims to go beyond the popular cliches and labelling of the Soviet avant-garde as Moscow-centred Constructivism, and show the diversity and richness of concepts and movements within it, as well as its close ties and exchange of ideas with contemporaries in Europe. 

It aims to provide a critical perspective on the Soviet avant-garde architecture of the 1920s-1930s and draw lessons for today’s architectural practice from Ladovsky, El Lissitzky, Vesnins, Ginzburg and many other lesser known or forgotten names

In presenza

General lectures will be combined with detailed analysis of several case studies. The lecturer will also share his own experience of living in a famous F-type unit of the house-commune designed by Moissey Ginzburg team (Moscow, 1929-30). 

A paper or, optionally, a reconstruction model of one of the selected projects with support and advice from the lecturer