Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Friday, 3 February 2012
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Kauchuk Factory Club
Kauchuk Factory Club constructed in 1927 - 1929 is a public building designed by Konstantin Melnikov. Kauchuk rubber factory, originally based in Riga, relocated to Khamovniki District in Moscow in 1915, threatened by German offensive, and was considerably expanded afterwards. Kauchuk Club is shaped as simple quarter of cylinder, housing a 800 seat theatre hall with two balcony levels. Melnikov's trademark exterior stairs (now under restoration ) were never intended for regular use, they are actually fire escapes connected to the second floor lobby.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Rusakov Workers' Club
The Rusakov Workers' Club is a great example of Constructivist architecture. Designed by Konstantin Melnikov, it was constructed in 1927 / 1928. The club is built on a fan-shaped plan, with three cantilevered concrete seating areas rising above the base. Each of these volumes can be used as separate auditorium, and combined they result in a capacity of over 1,000 people. At the rear of the building are more conventional offices. The function of the building is to some extent expressed in the exterior, which Melnikov described as a "tensed muscle". I love this building very much.
Friday, 9 December 2011
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Novodevichy Convent
This UNESCO listed Convent was founded in 1525 to celebrate Grand Prince Vasily III's recapture of Smolensk in1514. Many aristocrats took their vows here and it became known as a nunnery of the nobility.
Most of the buildings in the Moscow Baroque style were added in 1680 by Regent Sophia, Peter the Great's half sister, ironically later imprisoned by him here in 1689. The Convent was occupied in 1812 by Napoleon's troops, and later used as a female prison before becoming a Museum of Women's Emancipation during Communism. It has been a working Convent since 1994.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Narkomfin Building
The Narkomfin Building, one of the best pieces of Russian Constructivist architecture still surviving, was designed by Moisei Ginzburg with Ignaty Milinis in 1928 and finished in 1932. Its novel architectural ideas had a wider influence, including on Le Corbusier, whose Unité d'Habitation adopted its duplex living units accessed at their midpoints by glazed corridors. The building is in a very bad state of repair: hopefully conservation will save it for posterity and for future students of original architecture
Friday, 7 October 2011
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