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Anthropology of East Europe Review

ARCIDTECTURE AND THE STATE: URBAN CONCEPTS AFTER SOCIALISM

Anna Sokolina

After the collapse ofthe Moscow exemplify the notion of architecture the search for alternative identities in Russian visually reflecting sociopolitical architecture was projected onto the transformations, which proves to be a vital fundamental reversal and ultimate decline of factor for understanding the age and place. state structures formerly responsible for The plan for basic insights comprises design and construction. The development of the following approaches: in recent decades-from 1) A brief analysis ofthe so-called excessive ofthe 1950s, to "crisis" in Russian architecture emphasizes technologism of the 1960s, to large scale the dramatic connections between architecture mass industrial construction ofthe 1970s, to and the society under socialism; regionalism ofthe 1980s, to reconstructivism 2) A of conceptual architecture ofthe 1990s-follows the metamorphoses of ofthe 1980s portrays the new generation of socialist and post-socialist political cycles. Russian architects and the work they created in The transformations in Russian architecture opposition to official architectural politics, called mirror the ongoing socioeconomic changes paper architecture. It also highlights prime references to historical milestones of Russian and aim to reflect new ideals ofnational revolutionary architecture of the 1920s, and to the unification. western architectural experiences ofthe 1970s, The most recent results of prohibited in the Soviet Union as a part ofthe bibliographic research demonstrate that there "foreign ideology." The theoretical concepts of are no comprehensive academic publications utopia andfantasy in architecture are compared available, directly and exclusively focusing and contrasted; on contemporary Russian architecture and 3) The transformations in Russian urban planning in connection with economics, architecture of the 1990s are outlined as the politics, and social studies. A considerable framework for integral reading of architectural account of information is accessible, but the development mirroring sociopolitical changes in gap is not covered between actual Russian ; 4) Review ofprime concepts ofMoscow architectural reality and the visual images of urban development focuses on most Russia known and documented in the United significant dominant trends. Various other States. An integral reading ofpost-socialist approaches represented by a number of architecture in Russia is to be created not only institutions and individuals are not introduced due on the basis ofresearch on the new core to their limited novelty or inadequate recognition concepts and developments in architecture but within the architectural milieu. also on the basis of combined sociopolitical I. The Crisis in Russian Architecture and economic studies ofthe restructured In Soviet Russia, the progress ofsocialist society, and ofthe analysis ofthe historical architecture was manifested by the state to be a dilemma ofnational versus transnational political task in the process of communist identity. The compare-contrast principle has construction. The ideological concept of to be applied to outline the power dynamics architecture was introduced during the earliest on different levels ofbridging areas. years ofthe Soviet Union. Everything that The new Central Bank Headquarters 1 influenced the people's mentality and the behavior in Moscow's midtown area, the Samsung of the masses was developed in light of political Offices on the Garden Ring, or the newly objectives for the new society. The iconographic renovated church2 next to the "Burger Queen" political content of architecture, rather than at the Nikitsky Gate in the downtown inherent laws of structural genetics was always

Vol. 20, No.2 2002, Page: 91 Anthropology of East Europe Review the dominant axiom. along the border of every city because of the. growing lack of housing and cheap constructIOn In the socialist age new models ofliving space methods used for the erection ofthese machines were developed, which architects optimistically for living. That "substance" is spreading d~ep into attempted to define as spaces of the collective, the historical centers swallowing and levelmg understood as belonging to the Soviet people as a them, is at the same time spanning into the green whole, that is belonging to "nobody" as a state suburbs and destroying them. Residents can property where the authorities could control hardly identify themselves with their deteriorating access and monitor behavior. neighborhood. The impact ofmodernism and the Since the 1930s, architecture has international style upon Soviet architecture proved become a cultural domain, in which crucial for . The conflicts conservative tendencies have prevailed. increased between the creative initiative and the Socialist was declared to be the only clumsy monopolistic economy, the devastating direction for the development of creative need for housing and inflexible urban activities initiatives. Architects were organized in fulfilling the ambitions ofthe government to groups in order to fulfill main ideological and manifest the path ofprogress for Russian architecture3• As part ofthe socialist economy, political dogmas and to survive. All architecture experienced crises and failures of associations ofindependent architects were society. Its leaders declared an ongoing "struggle terminated and the Union of Soviet Architects for a happy future,,4 and architects were engaged was established. Any kind of free professional in an effort to create an infrastructure for an interpretation of architectural experiences alchemical transformation of the way of life. By before the 1917 Revolution, unwanted by the the end of the 1970s, major excitement was socialist administration, or Western succeeded by a sobering perception ofSoviet architectural practices that would lead to architecture as a derivative of collapsing undesirable independent conclusions were communist practices. restricted and access to such work was 2. The 1980s extremely difficult to attain, even though the As a protest against the tedious Soviet architectural community did make use standardized design production, a large group ofrare architectural publications from the ofRussian architects united in the paper West in their search for modem architectural architecture movement in the 1980s, thus images. In the 1980s, modernism, stepping out from under the shadow ofthe postmodernism, or decontsructivism, state planning collectives. In their work, officially had to be explained as ideologically which only existed on paper, parallels were foreign definitions, which could not exist apparent with the early days ofthe Soviet within Soviet reality. The orthodox slogan, Union, when constructivists and futurists "Marxist-Leninist teachings are right because were making cultural and architectural they are correct" was modified by the history.5 The new conceptual movement authorities in every professional sphere to emphasized the playful liberty of idealistic oppose open minds and alternative ways of projects towards the ironic inclusions of thinking. historical architectural styles, while also The congresses of the Union of Soviet designing standardized projects in the Architects were modeled on the congresses ofthe Communist Party ofthe USSR and were closely bureaucratic city-planning environment. A supervised by the authorities, as were all brilliant stylist Mikhail Belov, an artistic architectural concepts and initiatives. Soviet craftsman Evgeni Velichkin, an ironical architecture embodied Soviet social relations and constructivist Yuri Avvakumov, an reflected the insignificant role of an individual. intellectual dreamer Yuri Kuzin, grotesque The endless concrete jungles, once pronounced as humanists Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, Le Corbusier's modem legacy, are expanding conceptual deconstructivists Andrei Vovk and

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Anthropology of East Europe Review

Igor Khatuntsev, and the others settled down enhanced students' abilities to develop artistic in the niches of architectural schools and fantasy and escape from the prose of life into academies. In the 1980s, the Russian the metaphoric distinctive reality of dreams. construction industry was totally controlled Under the supervision of Professor Lezhava, and subsided by the state. The only approach students developed idealistic projects for the for emerging architects to conveying new downtown ofMoscow and St. Petersburg. ideas was international contests. Professor Nekrasov with his students In Russian society, where culture was designed conceptual projects for new always a sociopolitical domain and artists Business Towers in the either played the role of prophets and fighters neighborhood in Moscow, challenging the for the truth, or served the authorities, the dilemma of the constructivist-post­ paper architects succeeded in creating images constructivist legacy. At the 1992 of intellectual dreams and fulfilled social International Architectural Biennial in fantasies in their renderings and models. Venice, the Russian display created by The image ofthe Tower ofPerestroika Professor Nekrasov's studio attracted by Yuri Avvakumov for the exhibition enormous attention from architectural Temporary Monuments at the Russian professionals and the public. The in St.Petersburg was designed as an authorities, however, ignored paper ironic reminiscence of Tatlin' s constructivist architecture or belittled it as nothing more Monument to the Third International, than school exercises, in an attempt to hold developing like a scaffolding around the onto their power base. skeleton of Mukhina's Monument to Worker In the 1980s, the new generation of and Farmer, the popular icon of Socialist Russian architects confronted official Soviet Realism. The Red Tower by Igor Khatuntsev architecture and the methodology of socialist also became a semantic lighthouse signal of realism. They represented themselves as the new transition, as a realization of a messengers ofchanges in the post-socialist different architectural mentality shaped-both Russian state. In 1987 the architects Vera as messengers of the sociopolitical and Chuklov and Sergei Chuklov portrayed ideological changes in post-socialist Russia. Architecture in an interpretive work, That trend merged in time with the visualizing connections with Russian postmodern movement in Western revolutionary imagery of 1907. Yuri architecture. The results ofthis effort proved A vvakumov created architectural collages exceptional: the new generation ofRussian that recall symbols ofthe Russian architects has won top awards in professional constructivist era, arrange distinct links to the contests around the world. revolutionary socialist legacy7 and view it as a The alienation ofprofessional part ofthe integral cultural experience. education from architectural practices The concept of salvation had a deep manipulated by the state authorities was impact on Russian culture in the 1980s. The remarkable. At schools, faculty6 sought to new evaluative criteria for works ofculture direct their students toward fantasy and were shaped by the metaphors "the light at the meaningful expressiveness. The revision of end of the tunnel" and "the path toward the certain celebrated periods ofRussian national temple," constituted in Tengiz Abuladze's architecture and the world's finest brilliant film Repentance (1987), which in architectural epochs was promoted, especially meaningful hyperbolas revised the history of in connection with enduring modem and Stalinism and created an unforgettable image postmodem architectural impUlses. of the socialist age and people. The system of architectural education In architecture, that concept initially in Moscow and St. Petersburg (Leningrad) evolved into neo-Futurist disputes on

Vol. 20, No.2 2002, Page: 93 Anthropology of East Europe Review harmonious urban planning and on salvation had been immortalized as a slogan. was by creating new patterns for residential space. called a " dreamer" after Mikhail Arkadi Sigachev designed 21st Century Space Pogodin's play The Man with the Gun, until for the 1988 IAA&IFYA Competition and in the late 1970s the idiom was totally received an Honorable Mention for his transformed into and broadly used as a distinctive master drawing accompanied by sarcastic irony. the statement: "The city now is suffering from 3. The 1990s over-pollution and over-concentration. Spaces In the 1990s, the political conflict that for amusement developed on a purely culminated in the collapse of the socialist emotional basis, like abstract art, can save the empire furthered an intense development on present-day city from the disease of over­ the new social scene. The powerful political saturation" (Paper Architecture, 110). excitement spread over to the realm of The specifics of Soviet conceptual economy. In architecture, the cooperatives architecture of the 1980s were simultaneously that emerged in the late 1980s, evolved into rooted in the postmodern rejection of the independent architectural studios. By 1990 principles ofmodernity and in an effort to they started turning over into new forms of withdraw from official architecture (compare: Rappaport, 12). This rejection had its origin in private enterprises, joint ventures and commercial firms. the mass fatigue of totalitarian patterns that embodied the principles of modem In the late 1980s-1990s, the modernist origins ofpaper architecture were revised as architecture. The nature of totalitarian part of the belated postmodernist dilemma. architecture bears not only upon the cult of The newly born "Luzhkov's style" prompted power and its representational functions, but discussions within intellectual communities also upon the normative monotony, which evolves with the systematic realization of both in the East and West: Is this neo­ utopias. eclecticism or kitsch? Are the symptoms of postmodernism a necessary evil, reflections of The distinction between the projects of the market economy, images ofnew national the 1920s and the concepts of the 1980s could identities, or simply the result ofprofessional be described as the distinction between utopia incompetence? The mass return to andfantasy. In the eighties that was an architectural traditions in copies and essential, but illusionary way of liberation historicist imitations-as a concept of from dogmatic bureaucratic controL Utopia salvation, which can be compared to the was perceived as a failure of social postmodern revival in Western architecture­ reconstruction. Ideologists and political signaled the decline in professional culture economists generally presented the practices and the architectural crisis in post-Soviet ofhistorical social utopias as a beautiful Russia. In the late 1990s, the municipal though unsuccessful search for happiness. reconstruction project of the Manege Square Clear understanding of utopia as a delusion, a was developed across from the Kremlin in the dead end, was cultivated within Soviet society heart of Moscow. Following an international during socialism. Fantasy, on the contrary, competition, an underground shopping mall, led into a land ofdreams, where tales of a atriums and galleries, sculptures and better future and a perfectly rewritten past fountains, restaurants and metro station were could be projected onto mysteries ofthe created in the postmodern traditions of imagined present and transformed into a American Las Vegas. splendid artwork followed by a conceptual The postmodernist McDonalds statement. Fantasy was qualified as a gift and Headquarters in downtown Moscow was was supported as an artistic spiritual ability. constructed in 1993, and the Nautilus Co. The communist dream ofthe radiant future

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Shopping Center on Lubianskaya SquareS reconstruction project ofthe Big Kremlin with the excessive multitude of architectural Palace9• forms and materials was completed in 1998­ In 1999, the former paper architects 99. Both designs were authored by the ABV who now moderated the new architectural Group under the guidance of Alexey processes10, gathered for numerous Vorontsov, the Director ofa major power roundtables in order to discuss chances to structure - the General Architectural Planning satisfy new clients by inventing facades, Department ofMoscow (Glavapu). The developing postmodern figurativeness and architectural community skeptically criticized imitating historical styles. Function, structure, his declaration that the building is referring to and technology were underestimated. The the historical Nikolskaya Tower of the perspective ofthe development of Kremlin, to part ofthe Kitai-gorod wall professional culture was idealistically linked demolished during the Stalin's reign, and at to "the growth of the competence of the the same time, to the monuments of consumer"I! . The architects prioritized the Moscow's . "When culture designs suggested by investors and escapes, its place is taken by an extending contractors and completely accepted the mediocrity," argued the art historian Mikhail dogma of accelerating consumerism. Tumarkin ("Russland," 85). In spite of economic difficulties, new The collapse of the Soviet Union construction boomed after years of stagnation. generated a situation of a constant change, Old power institutions12 were restructured. and a heterogeneous society, in which the The expanding market instigated joint new wealth, massive poverty, organized ventures and investments from abroad. The crime, and the old and new nomenclature client and his preferences played an extensive existed side by side. In the 1980s, paper role. In the 1990s, former Russian paper architecture strived to create a modem architects kept their positions while staying in architectural universe, to visualize links the shadow. Technologies were imported. The between history and modernity, to define directions for the development ofRussian global connections between the processes of architecture were stated "from above" the social and architectural evolution. In the following the familiar patterns. The long 1990s, paper architects became involved in crisis in Russian architecture was still a the reconstruction of the country. Paper phenomenon to overcome. architects (Alexey Bavykin, Sergei Kiselev, By the end of the 1990s, an opposition Evgeni Krupin, and Evgeni Velichkin) shaped against the massive attack of developed designs for new . Many , the "Luzhkov' style," which projects were funded with international became a general line. The revision oforigins investments. A Russian-American joint and legacy, openness to contemporary and venture Sergei Kiselev Plus Partners-Sidney historical international contexts promoted the Gilbert, exemplifies the transfonnation. In the development of the professional awareness early 1990s, the studio designed showrooms striving for modem authenticity and national for Burda, a popular German Fashion House, identity. Neo-technologist and high-tech in seventeen cities across the fonner Soviet projects converged with contemporary Union, as well as the Burda Headquarters in western commercial design. At the Moscow the Moscow downtown, and the architectural show in 1999, following the Headquarters ofthe UN International Center annual Moscow Architectural Union' for the Survival ofHumanity on Leninski conference, neo-modernist, neo-constructi vist, Prospect, where the deconstructivist patterns and neo-technicist projects prevailed. That were adopted. In the late 1990s, the studio trend illuminated a breakthrough in developed and controlled the top-budget professional thinking. At the beginning of the

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new millennium, architecture played a role of After Perestroika, oversized state a seismograph ofunderground tremors. planning institutions such as the State . 13 4. Moscow urban p I anDIng Institute ofMaster Plan (Genplan), or the State Institute ofUrban Design (Giprogor), Moscow expanded dramatically since were still in business. In the 1990s, new in 1918 Lenin's government announced it a Schemes for Moscow Development were state . It eventually transformed into produced by Oleg Boyevsky's Department of the state within the state. Guidelines for the I Long-Term City Planning at the State Ii development ofthe city ofMoscow were Institute ofMaster Plan and approved by the controlled by the authorities, starting with new government. Until now, these schemes. Lenin's Plan of Monunlental Propaganda, to are confidential. The architectural commumty ', Stalin's ambitious master plan of capital I" positively responded to the task ofmoderating reconstruction of 1935, including a large the future by following the patterns of i.f. number ofmultistage contestsl4, to communist experiences. i Khrushchev's reform of the standards for The analysis ofthe major trends in residential construction, to Brezhnev's city Moscow urban planning stresses five zoning and housing program of 1970-80. comparatively different concepts, which are In 1993, Vladimir Yudintsev focused on diverse criteria ofthe post­ Architectural Studio surveyed and socialist reality-urban planning controlled by documented these keystones of Soviet the state; national-patriotic approach; architectural politicsl5 • During Stalin's reign, concept ofthe new high-rise identity; theory an ambitious capital master plan was ofevolutionary urban development; approach implemented and the new city infrastructu:e to local contextual reconstruction-yet some was established ofring-road belts, and radlUs­ distinctions are spelled out fairly as roads with the main intersection in the city similarities. center, with seven high-rise buildings incorporating the concept ofnational revival, 1. Urban planning controlled by the state: is visualizing the so called "stalinsky" represented by the State Institute of Master neoclassical style, with "strategic objects" Planning and the General Architect ofthe inside the towers. The aspect ofdominance is City ofMoscow Alexander Kuzmin. The head essential for understanding the role these ofthe program Oleg Boyevsky declares that edifices played in the life of"city. Moscow as a growing urban megastructure Brezhnev's so-called "master plan" of cannot be aggressively planned or 1971 followed the pattern and applied the idea restructured, but regulated and governed by of city zoning, which eventually generated the authorities on the basis of scientific increasing pressure upon the historical center. research focused on the following aspects: To tolerate dramatic urban growth, the city's • Internal urban development (increasing major development was redirected in rings density ofthe inner city fabric), toward the periphery. However, applied Restructuring the transportation system, measures by-resulted in transforming the • midtown into a growing polluted industrial • Extending the parks and the green areas area. At the same time, the large-scale toward downtown, construction of housing for Soviet people • More attention being paid by the planners altered Moscow's outskirts into gigantic to the industrial park inside the midtown, bedroom . Yudintsev's Studio • Enhancing social life in the outskirts by outlined the need for individual stages of creating local public areas and shopping improvement for every single city block. infrastructure,

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• Passing over local decision-making in Russia; and Andrei Bokov, the director ofthe design for public space to local Moscow Research mstitute for Design ofthe authorities. Objects of Culture, Leisure, and Health care. The guidelines are: • Developing housing programs to replace physically and morally degraded • Restoring Moscow's international apartment buildings.16 standing, 2. National-patriotic approach: represented by the • Pumping up the new capitalist economy art historians Vladimir Vinogradov, Mikhail with aggressive commercial activity - by Kudriavtsev and Gennadi Mokeev suggests a erecting new high-rise office buildings, historical-patriotic counter-model in opposition to hotels, trade centers, etc. in the downtown the official master plan. The concept ofHistoric area. Architecture is explored as an Moscow as a National Monument is based on: engine for economic renewal, with democratic ideals visualized in super­ • Targeted restoration and reconstruction of structures such as the mternational all historical monuments and landmarks, Business Center designed by the Boris focusing on those ofpatriotic content Tkhor Architectural Studio and cultivating the idea ofnational unification constructed in the mid-1990s1 8. especially from the IS-17th centuries, such as the recent reconstruction ofthe 4. The theory ofevolutionary urban development Nikolski Chapel in the is narrated by Andrei Butusov, Department Head neighborhood dismantled during the at the State mstitute ofUrban Design (Giprogor). Soviet reign; or the Cathedral of Christ He is interpreting: the Savior on Kropotkinskaya square-the • The city as a growing organism with its original cathedral, the largest sacred own genetic code, which cannot be edifice in Moscow with the room for 6 altered nor modified by a governmental or 000 people was brutally demolished other authoritarian intrusionl9; during Stalin's reign, as an action ofthe ideological struggle against religion; • Urban development and city planning as a process ofexperimental design, which is • Landmark preservation and conservation for instance exemplified by the new City of the Moscow downtown manifested as Hall office building constructed next to an integral museum area, where any new the historical building of the City Hall in construction to be restrictedl7; downtown Moscow. • Furthering city planning in three Butusov considers no spontaneous researched most popular directions-north, individual actions, but an integral reading of southwest and southeast, detouring the city as a natural infrastructure, similar to a downtown and historical areas; living being obeying its own inner rules and • Formation of three new mega-centers following the genetic code. He imposes outside the City Circle Highway, feasible measures to gradually improve the :.' • Preserving the city environment by city fabric, but he presumes that challenging preserving and extending the parks. the crisis in Russian architecture is a long­ term quest. 3. The concept ofa high-rise building as a representation ofthe new identity, a popular idea 5. Contextual reconstruction ofthe city is a very in both Western and Eastern cultures, is stressed popular notion of architectural revival among by the ambitious younger generation ofpowerful Moscow architects. The concept emphasizes: architectural institutions-Boris Tkhor Studio in the • Gradual reconstruction of all historical structure ofthe State mstitute Mosproject 2; districts, which are currently in a poor Alexey Vorontsov, the director ofthe General condition2o, Architectural Planning Department ofMoscow (Glavapu) at the Ministry of Construction of • Improvement of the residential bedroom

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areas in the Moscow outskirts by Barford, George. Understanding . developing diverse vital public centers Wore ester, MA: Davis Publications, 1986. and fighting the overall standardized Bowlt, John E. Russian Art ofthe Avant-garde: Theory anonymous and monotonous urban and Criticism 1902-1934. 2nd ed. London: environment, Thames and Hudson, 1988. • Targeted reconstruction and revitalization Boym, Constantin. New Russian Design. New York: of existing local city centers, Rizzoli, 1992. • Landmark preservation and urban Brumfield, William Craft. A History ofRussian Architecture. Cambridge: Cambridge renewal, augmented with new University Press, 1993. developments21 • This research illuminates the links Calneck, Anthony, ed. The Great Utopia. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1992. between architecture and society in Russia in the 1990s and emphasizes the transformations Castillo, Greg. and the Stalinist Company Town. Urban Design Studies, in Moscow architecture as in a state within Volume 2, 1996. 1-20. the state. A virtual narrative ofpost-socialist architecture and the power dynamics ofthe Flierl, Bruno and Sokolina, Anna. "East Germany: High-rise Building Concept in Urban Design." new urban concepts in Moscow can only be Modern Foreign Architecture: Aesthetic composed and summarized with the critical Problems. Moscow: VNIITAG, 1989.63-74. applications to the historical and In Russian. contemporary economic-political and Frampton, Kenneth. Modern Architecture: a Critical ideological contexts. Essentially, the revision History. 3rd ed. London: Thames & Hudson, of architectural thought, the appeal to origins 1992. and legacy, openness to international Ghirardo, Diane. Architecture After Modernism. inspirations promoted development ofthe London: Thames and Hudson, 1996. professional awareness striving for modem Hamlin, Talbot. Architecture trough the Ages. Rev. ed. authenticity and national identity. New York: G.P.Putnam's Sons, 1953. References Kostof, Spiro. The City Assembled. London: Thames and Hudson, 1991. Architectura SSSR (Architecture of the USSR); Architectura Socialisticheskikh Kostof, Spiro. The City Shaped. London: Thames and Stran(Architecture of Socialist Countries). Hudson, 1991. Moscow: Izdatelstvo Literatury po Lynch, Kevin. The Image ofthe City. 25th printing. Stroitelstvu, 1975,1977, Vol. 12, books 1,2 of Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1997. Vseobshaya Istoriya Architectury (General History ofArchitecture). 12 volumes. 1970­ Lissitzky, El. Erinnerungen Briefe Schriften. Dresden: 1977. In Russian. VEB Verlag der Kunst, 1967. In German. New Sustainable Settlements. Vortrag / lecture 3 & Architectura (Architecture). 1975-1985, major 4. "Anna Sokolina: Paper Architects and newspaper. In Russian. Secret Architecture." EA.UE (European Academy of Architectura i Stroitelstvo Rossii (Architecture and the Urban Environment) Report. Berlin: Construction ofRussia). 1985-1990, monthly EA.UE, 1993. 1-8. magazine. In Russian. Rappaport, Alexander G. "Language and Architecture Architectura SSSR (Architecture ofthe USSR). 1975­ ofPost-Totalitarism.-':"Paper Architecture. 1985, monthly magazine. In New Projects from the Soviet Union. Ed. RussianArchitecturny Vestnik (Architectural Heinrich Klotz. New York: Rizzoli, 1990. Messenger). 1991-2002, periodic magazine. In Russian. Rosenfeld, AlIa, ed. and Norton Dodge. From Gulag to Glasnost: Nonconformist Artfrom theSoviet BaigelI, Matthew and Renee. Soviet Dissident Artists, Union. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd. in Interviews After Perestroika. New Brunswick, association with the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1995. Art Museum, Rutgers University, 1995.

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"Russland"-Heft. Der Architekt. Zeitschrift des Bundes ---. "The Long Crisis in Russian Architecture." Deutscher Architekten 2, A 12230 E, (1994): Kommune, Forum for Policy, Economy, 69-113. In German. Culture 10 (1992): 73-75. FrankfurtlMain. Sharp, Jane A. "SHERA Symposium / Russian ---. "The New Russia." Newsletter. Man and Modernism: Methods and Meaning in the Architecture 4, Nov. (1992): 5. Post-Soviet Era." Bulletin ofthe Society of ---. "High-Rise Buildings as Semantic Images in Historians ofEast European and Russian Art Moscow Architecture." Discussions on and Architecture. Vol. 5, No 1 Winter 1999: Architectural and Urban Design Theory and 9-11. Practice. Moscow: MArchi, 1980. 162-163. Sokolina, Anna. "In Opposition to the State: The In Russian. Soviet Neoavant-Garde and East German Stokols, Daniel and Altman, Irwin, eds. Public Space . . Aestheticism in the 1980s." ARTMargins, Cambridge University Press, 1992. Main View. May 2002 .http://www.artmargins.com Notes ---. "Paper Architecture and the Russian Utopia." Abstracts ofPapers Presented at the 55th Annual Meeting ofthe Society ofArchitectural 1 The construction ofthe Central Bank Headquarters Historians. Richmond, VA, 2002. 109. and the Samsung Offices on Tverskoi Bulevard was http://www.sah.org/annual%20mtg/archiv completed in the mid-1990s in collaboration with al/richmond/richmondabs3.htm international contractors.

2 The restoration ofnumerous churches became a http://www.sah.org/annual%20mtg/archival/richm recognizable sign of the new social reality in the late ondlrichmondspkrs.htm 1990s in Russia visualizing the freedom ofreligious ---. "Alternative Identities: Conceptual faith. The basic claim ofthe protectionist principle was Transformations in Russian Architecture implemented in mainly orthodox churches and 1950s-l990s." ARTMargins: Main View. cathedrals, which tended to depict anew the integrated 2001. http://www.artmargins.com national identity and the spiritual principles suppressed under socialism. ---. "Russian Neoavant-Garde 1980s-1990s: Yuri Avvakumov and the New Utopia." Abstracts 3 Attempting to politically address the enforced East­ 2001, Record for the Sessions ofthe 89th West dilemma, a controversy that historically Annual Conference ofthe College Art preoccupied national thought Association, Chicago. New York: CAA, 2001. 4 A popular political idiom 180. 5 "Apparently from nowhere, a generation of witty, ---. "Welcome to Consumerism." ARTMargins: profound, romantic, and daring architects emerged. http://www.artmargins.com. Roundtable What they were trying to convey on paper and in "Ten Years After." 2001 fragile sculptures was an absolute provocation. They ---. "Technology and Tradition in Russian Architecture dreamed, philosophized, satirized and made 1950s-1990s: Dynamics of Transformations associations, dragged history out into the open, and and Conceptual Conflicts." Art, Technology reached for the stars. A fresh wind was blowing after and Modernity in Russia and Eastern Europe. decades ofstagnation, and they were testing their Columbia University 2000. strength in anticipation ofthe changes which would http://www.co]umbia.edu/cu/slavic/art bring all the comfortable concepts and arrangements into a state ofturrnoil." (New Sustainable Settlements, tech! 1). ---. "Russia in Transition: Residential Construction, 6 for example, professors Ilya Lezhava, Andrei Law, and Market." Kommune. Forumfor Barkhin, Andrei Nekrasov, and Dmitry Kostrikin at the Policy, Economy, Culture 10 (1993): 52-55. Moscow Architectural Institute FrankfurtlMain. In German. 7 "aside from failing to identify which revolution" ---. "From Paper Architecture to Joint Venture." (Castillo, 1). Bauwelt 48,28 Dec. (1992): 2733-2741. Berlin. In German. 8 The authors classified it as a "neo-art-nouveau, romantic-technocratic expressionist" edifice. The

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mixture of shapes, colors, and textures overwhelmed American Ellerbe Becket and Alsop Architects, the the public's expectations. The edifice recalled the Danish VELUX, numerous joint-ventures emerged, scandalous culinary masterpieces from the 1980s-the among them the American-Russian SPGA+ABD and museums in Cologne by Hans Hollein and in Berlin by Sergei Kisselev plus Partners. James Sterling. 19 In order to meet the demands ofthe new moneyed 9_in spite ofthe economic crisis in the country. The aristocracy for residences outside the prefabricated project was funded by a Swiss enterprise and the mass settlements, President Yeltsin decreed in 1992 the Russian government. The concept the love a/the past, construction of a new settlement ring in the Moscow of the history and legacy is officially promoted as a outskirts outside the Moscow circular highway, for basis for consolidation for the Russian people. That country houses and villas. The villas for new Russians was one major reason for the broad public approval of designed in 1994 and built 1995-96 by Evgeni the expensive reconstruction. Velichkin and Nikolai Golovanov A&A Workshops explicitly illustrate the idea. However, the architects do 10 the directors of the previously existing architectural not reveal the names ofprivate investors, referring to it studios Evgeni Ass and Alexander Asadov; the director as secret information common in business in the of the Ostozhenka architectural studio Alexander private sector. Skokan; the president of the SKiP company Sergei Kise1ev; and the president of the ABD+SPGA Boris 20 landmark preservation is another issue for concern. Levyant A new Academy of Restoration was established in the late 1990s, but the pilot project for the restoration and II the statement is based on the research on materials preservation ofthe historical street Arbat in the published and placed on the web by Moscow's downtown Moscow was initiated in the 1980s. In the architectural magazine "Arkhitekturny Vestnik" 1970s, a considerable part of this neighborhood was (Architectural Messenger), editor-in-chief Sergei demolished. Instead, the new axis of Kalininsky Fesenko. Prospect, later ironically called dentures, has been 12 the Department of Construction (Gosstroi of the constructed. The fIrst conceptual public area in USSR) Moscow was completed in the 1990s, but the lack of funding resulted in cosmetic renovation and temporary 13 Classified information of the socialist era included repainted front facades. urban planning, location of radioactivecenters in the cities, nuclear research areas, air pollution, and housing 21 The reconstruction ofthe Mayakovsky Theater in for privileged social groups. Moscow 1990-93 after the design by Andrei Nekrasov Studio offers a comprehensive example that illustrates 14_the design for the Palace of Soviets or for prestigious the concept. high-rise buildings

15 Schemes 0/Moscow Urban Development­ information received during a life history interview with Vladimir Yudintsev and partly summarized in "From Paper Architecture to Joint VentUre." Bauwelt 48,28 Dec. (1992): 2733-2741. In German.

16 Housing remains the most important issue for concern. In Moscow, residential communal apartment buildings still exist, where nearly one million people are housed with only one room per family sharing a bathroom with some two to twelve other families living in the same apartment.

17 Generally, thanks to the concept oflove of the past, Lenin's Memorial on Oktiabrsky Square in Moscow is in great condition, as well as many other political memorials. Moscow's Metro is declared a State Museum Zone.

18 The expanding market attracted international enterprises to collaborate with Russian architects: the

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Development of the City Center Pollution of the City Environment

Moscow Outskirts

McDonalds Headquarters

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