Although history does not know the subjunctive moods, it is still quite possible to imagine what Moscow would look like if everything went a little differently. But I wonder which of the following buildings Muscovites would like to have in Moscow now?
The master plan provided for the development of the city center as a unified system of highways, squares and embankments with unique buildings that embody the ideas and achievements of socialism.
The architecture of Moscow in the 30s - early 50s undoubtedly occupies a central place in the Russian architecture of the socialist era. In terms of its originality and scope, it is the most striking embodiment of socialist utopia in architecture. A feature of the architectural process of this period was that it was entirely determined by ambitious state tasks. For their implementation, large-scale architectural competitions were organized, to which architects of a wide variety of orientations and creative schools were invited.
A. Vesnin, V. Vesnin.
In 1934, a competition was announced for the building of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (Narkomtyazhprom) on Red Square. The construction of this grandiose complex of 110 thousand m3 on an area of 4 hectares would lead to a radical reconstruction of Red Square, the adjacent streets and squares of Kitay-gorod. 12 projects were submitted for the first stage of the competition. The impressive projects of the brothers A. and V. Vesnin, the leaders of the constructivist movement, were not noted by the jury, as well as the projects of other participants, although outstanding architectural solutions were presented to the competition, which were among the most interesting design ideas of our century.
When deciding the layout of the Kitaygorodsky district, the authors set the task of solving an ensemble of a number of squares (Red Square, Sverdlov, Dzerzhinsky, etc.) as the main nucleus of the entire city, which includes all the main highways, and creating a new architectural center for the proletarian capital.
Promotional video:
Leaving the existing ring of squares, the authors identified the north-south highway and pierced the Maroseyka highway to Manezhnaya Square. At the intersection of these highways, a square was formed that serves as an outpost in front of Red Square and provides it from transit traffic. A new Kirovskaya street with orientation to the axis of the mausoleum is also brought here.
Sketch perspective.
Master plan and basement floor plan.
Lengthwise cut.
Plan of the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Layout.
Fragment of the facade.
The entire central part of Kitai-gorod is being transformed into a park that opens up the perspective of both Red Square and the Kremlin, and the House of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry.
In solving the general layout of the site, the features of the terrain are used: terraces descending to the Moskva River simultaneously serve as a stylobate for the entire building.
Above the main lobby, a floor for demonstration shops and product exhibitions is being designed. The upper part of the square base houses the governing bodies of the People's Commissariat and a large conference room for 500 people.
All rooms of the People's Commissariat are located in 32 floors of a star-shaped tower with vertical transport in the center. The total number of tower rooms is 3780.
The public part, located between the buildings of the People's Commissariat and design organizations, has a connection with the People's Commissariat through four crossings. In the public part of the building, a club was designed, located from the 5th to the 9th floor and including a large auditorium for 1500 people.
The construction of buildings is adopted in the form of an iron frame filled with lightweight materials. The cladding is mainly light gray marble with partial use of non-ferrous and stainless metals. The volume of the building: the first stage - 1,273,000 m3, the second - 287,000 m3 and the third - 500,000 m3, and in total - 2,060,000 m3.
More projects..
The building of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry (I. Fomin, P. Abrosimov, M. Minkus. 1934).
I. Fomin is the largest representative of the St. Petersburg school of the neoclassical direction in Russian architecture, who developed as a master even in pre-revolutionary times. Even in the 1920s, during the period of complete dominance of constructivism, Fomin managed to remain faithful to classical principles in architecture and even developed the so-called "proletarian order". “Two main verticals of the main facade are given in order to create a gap through which it would be nice to look at the mausoleum. In Sverdlov Square, the building ends with a straight end of the building. A silhouette solution is chosen here. We break this end with a very ceremonial arch, which corresponds to the character of the old architecture of the square. The building is a closed ring in the plan. Since the composition is closed, we did not want to rise above 12-13 floors in general, and only the towers will reach 24 floors. "From the explanatory note to the project.
On the stylobate, which corresponds to the Kremlin wall, there are four towers, reaching a height of 160 meters. The rhythmic construction, expressed in four vertical elements and the colonnade of the stylobate, creates the visual extension necessary for the longitudinal framing of the square and corresponds to the construction of the Kremlin wall. The vertical division corresponds to the four divisions of the Kremlin tower, which is necessary for the building to be included in the general ensemble. A single lobby has been designed along Red Square. From the explanatory note to the project.
Narkomtyazhprom project. Competition project of Ivan Leonidov.
This is how Leonidov himself described his project: (from an explanatory note).
“I believe that the architecture of the Kremlin and Basil the Blessed should be subordinate to the architecture of the House of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry, and the building of the NKTP itself should take a central place in the city.
Historical motives should be compositionally subordinated to the principle of artistic contrast to this leading object …
In the project, the center of the composition is high-rise towers, the choice of which is due to functional and architectural considerations (the requirement of harmony, composition, movement, spatiality, size). The lower parts of the building (hall, stands, exhibitions, rear building) correspond in height to the surrounding architecture and are compositionally constructed in a limited contrast of the lower plan.
There are three towers. The first one is rectangular in plan, with a light spatial top, facing the Red Square. The top of the tower is glass, with suspended terraces of metal construction (stainless steel).
The round tower is conceived as a contrast to the first, picturesque in form and processing. The tower is treated with terraced stands. The material is glass bricks, which makes it possible to preserve the integrity of the form using the textured effects of the extraordinary material … At night, the tower will stand out for its light silhouette with a barely noticeable mesh structure and dark spots of tribune terraces.
The third tower is conceived to be spatial in plan, simple and strict in its facades.
Red Square is divided into two terraces located at different levels, which makes it possible to achieve new effects during military parades (for example, let tanks in one plane, cavalry in another …)
The terraced principle of solving the area will provide good visibility of the Mausoleum."
Three towers of different height and silhouette, connected by passages at different heights, were to be visible from all over Moscow and its outskirts. In the evenings, one of the towers, with an all-glass façade, would create a cosmic spectacle.
Leonidov created the House of People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry at a time when they were already fighting with it. They fought not just with Leonidov, but with "Leonidovism", which became a terrible curse in the 30s. It meant, as the magazine "Art to the masses" wrote, "blind imitation of Western models, fetishism of architectural forms, developing independently of the class struggle, and ignoring the issues of the economy of buildings."
Vesnin brothers.
Melnikov.
Shchusev in collaboration with Fridman.
However, very quickly the construction of the House of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry on Red Square was abandoned.
But according to the General Plan for the reconstruction of Moscow approved in 1935, a place was allocated for it nearby - the territory of Zaryadye.
Engineer Shumilin drew up a design project for the central part of Moscow, according to which Red Square was to be renamed into Mausoleum Avenue with the destruction of the Iversky Gate, as well as with the demolition of buildings on the territory of Kitai-Gorod and Zaryadye.
Deprived of an architectural limitation, Red Square turned into an immense space, into which the grandiose composition of the House of People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry was revealed in its entirety
Here is a photomontage illustrating a similar project by Mordvinov.
Not a single pre-war project satisfied the customer (i.e. the state in fact), and during the Second World War there was no time for construction.
The competition for the project of the Palace of Soviets in Moscow is one of the largest and most representative architectural competitions of our century. The idea of constructing a building in the capital of the world's first state of workers and peasants that could become a symbol of the "coming triumph of communism" appeared already in the 1920s. It was decided to build the Palace of Soviets on the site of the destroyed Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The competition for the project of the Palace of Soviets was announced in 1931, and it took place in several stages.
A total of 160 projects were submitted for the competition, including 12 commissioned and 24 non-competitive, as well as 112 project proposals, 24 proposals came from foreign participants, among whom were world famous architects: Le Corbusier, V. Gropius, E. Mendelssohn. The turn of Soviet architecture towards the legacy of the past, which was clearly visible by this time, also determined the choice of the winners. The highest prizes were awarded to architects: I. Zholtovsky, B. Iofan, G. Hamilton (USA). Later, the Council of Builders of the Palace of Soviets (which at one time included Stalin himself) took as a basis the project of B. Iofan, which, after numerous modifications, was adopted for implementation.
The competition for the design of the Palace of Technology was announced in 1933. The design object itself was a complex of scientific and technical institutions, it was supposed to become in the capital of a country in an active process of industrialization, a center designed to "arm the masses with the achievements of Soviet technology in the field of industry, agriculture, transport and communications." The site on the bank of the Moskva River was chosen as the construction site for the Palace. The industrialism of the solution to the project of A. Samoilov and B. Efimovich is not a tribute to the already gone constructivism, but rather an illustration of the "technocratic" nature of the design object itself. The palace of technology was not built.
The building of the military commissariat. (L. Rudnev. 1933).
The buildings of the architect L. Rudnev are among the most notable in Moscow. He is the head of the team of authors for the project of the High-rise building of Moscow State University on the Lenin Hills (1953). In the 30s, a number of buildings of the People's Commissariat of Defense were built according to Rudnev's projects: the Military Academy of the Red Army named after I. Frunze on Devichye Pole (1932), the building of the People's Commissariat of Defense on Frunzenskaya Embankment (1936) and on the street. Shaposhnikov (1933). For the buildings of this department, the architect developed a special style with motives of formidable inaccessibility and overwhelming power, corresponding to the official image of the Red Army. The project of the building on Arbat Square, which was only partially implemented, reflects the architect's transition from the gloomy grandeur of the buildings of the defense commissariats of the 30s to the major pomp that became characteristic of the architecture of the 40s - early 50s.
The buildings of the architect L. Rudnev are among the most notable in Moscow. He is the head of the team of authors for the project of the High-rise building of Moscow State University on the Lenin Hills (1953). In the 30s, a number of buildings of the People's Commissariat of Defense were built according to Rudnev's projects: the Military Academy of the Red Army named after I. Frunze on Devichye Pole (1932), the building of the People's Commissariat of Defense on Frunzenskaya Embankment (1936) and on the street. Shaposhnikov (1933). The project of the building on Arbat Square, which was only partially implemented, reflects the architect's transition from the gloomy grandeur of the buildings of the defense commissariats of the 30s to the major pomp that became characteristic of the architecture of the 40s - early 50s. ©
Here is what we see now on Frunzenskaya:
In 1934, the whole world followed the dramatic fate of the crew of the Chelyuskin icebreaker, which was drifting on an ice floe after the shipwrecked in the Chukchi Sea. In the summer of the same year, Moscow met the brave Chelyuskinites and the pilots who rescued them, who were the first to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The new traditions of socialist life required the perpetuation of the glorious feat of the Soviet people in monumental forms.
The Aeroflot building, which was planned to be erected on the square near the Belorussky railway station, was conceived by the architect D. Chechulin as a monument to the heroic Soviet aviation. Hence the sharp silhouette solution, the "aerodynamic" form of the high-rise building and the sculptural figures of the heroes-pilots: A. Lyapidevsky, S. Levanevsky, V. Molokov, N. Kamanin, I. Slepnev, I. Vodopyanov, I. Doronin, crowning seven openwork arches, turned perpendicular to the main facade and constituting its kind of portal. The sculptor I. Shadr, who sculpted the figures of the pilots, took part in the work on the project.
The project in its original form and purpose was not implemented. Almost half a century later, the general ideas of the project were embodied in the complex of the House of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on Krasnopresnenskaya embankment (now the House of Government).
The project of the House of Books is an example of the typical design of the building as an "architectural monument" in the early 1930s. Trapezoidal, sky-high silhouette, simplified architectural forms and an abundance of sculpture on all parts of the building. Architect I. Golosov in the 1920s clearly showed himself in the mainstream of constructivism (he is the author of the well-known Zuev Club), and in subsequent years he created interesting solutions in the spirit of the new Soviet classics. Participated in competitions for the project of the Palace of Soviets and the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry, where he proposed original projects. Golosov's works are distinguished by features that are defined as "symbolic romanticism." “An architect must be free from style, in the old, historical sense of the word, and must create the style himself …
For this, guidelines and laws should be given that make it easier for the architect in each individual case to choose the correct path to solving the problem of artistic creation … It is necessary to establish only immutable provisions that are inevitable, true and irreplaceable. There are a lot of such provisions, and these provisions, undoubtedly, carrying in themselves absolute value, are equally acceptable both to classical architecture and to the architecture of our time. " I. Golosov. From the lecture "New ways in architecture".
Since October 1942, in the midst of the Great Patriotic War, the Literatura i Art newspaper reported: “The competition for monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War is ending. About 90 works were received from Moscow sculptors and architects. Information was received about the expulsion of projects from Leningrad, Kuibyshev, Sverdlovsk, Tashkent and other cities of the USSR. Over 140 projects are expected to arrive”. In order to familiarize the public with the materials of the competition in the winter and spring of 1943, three exhibitions were held in Moscow, at which the presented projects were exhibited. The conditions of the competition, among other topics, provided for the creation of a monument to the Heroic Defenders of Moscow. The choice of the site for the monument was at the discretion of the contestants. The author of the "Arch of Heroes" architect L. Pavlov proposed to place his monument on Red Square. The monument was not built.
Architect V. Oltarzhevsky, together with A. Mordvinov, the author of the High-rise building of the hotel "Ukraine" on Kutuzovsky Prospect. V. Oltarzhevsky did a lot of architectural theory and methods of erection of high-rise buildings. In 1953, his book "Construction of high-rise buildings in Moscow" was published, in which he tried to find a connection between this architecture and the traditions of Russian architecture. V. Oltarzhevsky paid special attention to the structures and various types of engineering and technical equipment for high-rise buildings. Oltarzhevsky's project was not implemented. High-rise building on pl. The uprising was built by architects M. Posokhin and A. Mndoyants.
And only in 1947, after a resolution was adopted on the construction of high-rise buildings designed to revive the lost expressiveness of Moscow's silhouette, a 32-storey office building was designed in Zaryadye according to Chechulin's project. This building became the main vertical dominant of Moscow, the center of a whole necklace of high-rise buildings.
Initial project.
Which, after some minor transformations, began to look like this:
In 1947, the Soviet government adopted a decree on the construction of high-rise buildings in Moscow. By the beginning of the 50s High-rise buildings on Lenin Hills (Moscow State University), on Smolenskaya Square (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), on Lermontovskaya Square (administrative building), on Komsomolskaya Square and on Kutuzovsky Prospekt (Leningradskaya and Ukraine hotels), on Kotelnicheskaya the embankment and on Vosstaniya Square (residential buildings) were built. And only the construction of a 32-storey administrative building in Zaryadye, which was to become one of the main dominants in the silhouette of the center of the capital, was not completed. Its construction was interrupted after the famous 1955 decree condemning "excesses and embellishment in architecture" and marked the beginning of a new era in Soviet architecture. The already erected structures were dismantled,and on the foundations of the high-rise building according to the project of the same D. Chechulin in 1967 the hotel "Russia" was built.
Here is what was written in the decree of the Moscow City Council of 1935: “Red Square to expand twice, and the central squares - to them. Nogin, them. Dzerzhinsky, them. Sverdlov and Revolution - in 3 years to reconstruct and architecturally design. To free the territory of Kitay-gorod from the existing small buildings, with the exception of some large structures, and instead of them to build several monumental buildings of national importance.
To free the high hilly bank (Zaryadye) from small buildings with the construction on this site of the monumental building of the House of Industry and with the design of the descents to the river."
Zaryadye view:
Administrative skyscraper project:
However, the projects were not destined to come true. Analysis of structures, metal from which was used in the construction of the Luzhniki sports complex:
As a result, the Rossiya Hotel was built and recently demolished.
Hotel Mossovet ("Moscow"). (L. Savelyev, O. Stapran. 1931).
Since 1931, the Moscow City Council has held a closed competition for the project of a huge hotel with 1000 rooms, the most comfortable by the standards of those years. Six projects took part in the competition, the project of young architects L. Savelyev and O. Stapran was recognized as the best. The architectural and general press closely followed all stages of design and construction: in terms of urban planning, the building was of great importance - it was located at the intersection of the main thoroughfare of the capital, Gorky Street, with the newly built "Ilyich Alley", a huge avenue that led to the Palace of Soviets.
When the walls of the future hotel "Moscow" were already being erected, Academician A. Shchusev was appointed the head of the team of architects. The project of the hotel, its façade, has been modified in the spirit of a new monumentality and orientation towards the classical heritage. According to legend, Stalin signed both versions of the building's facade at once, submitted to him on one sheet, as a result of which the facade of the built hotel turned out to be asymmetrical. The construction was completed in 1934. "Ilyich Alley" was not laid, the traces of its laying are the current Manezhnaya Square, formed on the site of the demolished development of Mokhovy Streets. ©
Here's what happened:
TASS. Architect Golosov's project:
The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) was created on July 10, 1925 by a resolution of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on the basis of the Russian Telegraph Agency. Possessed the exclusive right to disseminate information about events outside the USSR. ©
Here's what happened:
Moreover, the TASS building was supposed to be 20 floors high, the Soviet chief, for some unknown reason, forbade to build above what it turned out. Therefore, the entrance lobby looks somewhat strange on a general scale.
Draft design of the coat of arms of Moscow:
I hope you enjoyed the non-embodied tour of Moscow.