Authors

Konysheva Evgeniya V.
SOVIET CITY CINEMA OF THE 1930s –1950s: BETWEEN SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS AND CONSTRUCTION PRACTICE

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №1 (77) March, 2022

The article considers the relationships between theoretical developments and architectural design practice in their search for an optimal type of Soviet city cinema in the 1930s – 1950s focusing on the theoretical studies and practical developments carried out at the All-Union Academy of Architecture under the leadership of Ya.A. Kornfeld and N.Ya. Kolli. It is shown how work was conducted on key issues such as location of cinemas in the urban space and selection of the priority cinema building type and optimal layout. In this context, separate consideration is given to the concepts of a multiplex cinema and a cinema without a foyer. The question of the influence of the Western experience on the theoretical developments of Soviet architects is addressed. Research has identified a number of factors (social, economic, architectural and planning) taken into account when searching for optimal design solutions for Soviet cinemas.

Konysheva Evgeniya V.
EUROPEAN ARCHITECTS IN SOVIET ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN ORGANIZATIONS IN THE 1930s: EVOLUTION OF THEIR PLACE, ROLE AND RELATIONSHIPS. Part II. Problems and Contradictions

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (50) June, 2015

The article deals with the application of foreign experiences in architectural design and construction in the USSR during the early five-year plan periods. The author touches upon the insufficiently explored aspect of the problem, namely the position of the European architects in Soviet design organizations. The article is focused on problems and misbalances in the Soviet design system of the 1930s and on their perception by European architects. The author examines how the European architects saw their task and which design principles they intended to bring in. The article gives special consideration to relationships between Soviet and foreign professionals. It is based on documentary sources from Russian archives and information from architects.

Konysheva Evgeniya V.
EUROPEAN ARCHITECTS IN SOVIET PLANNING ORGANIZATIONS IN THE 1930s: EVOLUTION OF POSITIONS, ROLES AND INTERRELATIONS. Part 1. NEEDS AND OBJECTIVES

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №3 (47) September, 2014

The article addresses the issue of employment of international experiences in design and construction in the USSR during the early five-year planning periods. The article touches upon the little-studied aspect of the problem, namely the status of European architects in Soviet planning organizations. Primarily, the author reviews and analyses data on the overall number of European architects staying in the USSR during the 1930s and their distribution across the planning organizations. Besides, the author examines the procedures that were used for recruiting professionals, selection principles, and tasks they were given. Finally, the article considers the evolution of the positions and roles occupied by European architects in the central and regional design organizations. Special attention is given to the evolution of relationships between Soviet and European specialists. The article is based on documents available in Russian and German archives.

Konysheva Evgeniya V.
A COMMUNIST AND "ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE": THE ARCHITECT KURT MEYER IN THE USSR

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №1 (41) March, 2013

The article is devoted to the Soviet period in the life and creativity of the German architect Kurt Meyer. It considers principal landmarks in his biography before arrival in the USSR and during the Moscow period, and reviews his creative career. K. Meyer is presented as an example of relationships between Soviet authorities and foreign consulting architects invited for implementing the accelerated urbanization plans of the first five-year periods.

Main attention is given to the Moscow re-planning project bid (1931 – 1932). In this connection, the author reviews K.Meyer's previous working experience in Cologne and sources of his design principles in the European town-planning practice of the 1900s – 1920s. Special emphasis is made on the influence of K.Meyer’s ideas on the 1935 master plan concept for Moscow. Also, the article reviews K.Meyer's activities as head of Mossovet’s Sixth Architectural Planning Studio that developed Moscow’s main street projects, and their effect with regard to the development of Moscow’s master plan. K.Meyer’s concept is used as a prism for showing the difficult and contradictory process of searching for Moscow planning principles in the first half of the 1930s and the establishment of a system of design organisations directly dealing with the planning of Moscow, and the role of ideology and Soviet power and party leadership.

The article is based on materials published in the Soviet press in the 1930s, as well as archival sources, including ones that have not yet been made available to the scholarly community.

Meerovich Mark G., Konysheva Evgeniya V., Flierl Thomas
CRITIQUE OF ERNST MAY’S ACTIVITIES IN THE USSR

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №1 (37) March, 2012

The article is devoted to the critique of the planning approaches practiced by the German representative of functionalist architecture E.May in designing "socialist cities” in the USSR during the first five-year periods. Initially, the critique was based on professional disagreements and concerned the regularity and ordinariness of his planning solutions, domination of line building, and priority of the functional over the artistic. Gradually, however, the critique lost professional reasoning and acquired political colouring. After 1932 E.May lost his leading position in the Soviet design system. After 1934 when E.May left the USSR, this German architect was totally denied any positive contribution to Soviet town-planning, and his heritage received the pejorative Russian term ‘Mayevshchina’ (May-ism). It was not only evidence of a turn in Soviet town-planning practice from the functionalist approach to understanding the city as an art and ideology phenomenon. And not only did it reflect the attitude of the totalitarian state towards any foreign experience as potentially dangerous and hostile. It was an expression of the system of relationships between Soviet power and creative personality. The town-planner was dependent on the central and local authorities, on commissioning agencies, on the achievement of targets, on the availability of finance and technology to support design and construction, and on the town-planning policy and ideological dogmas. If professionalism and creative beliefs entered into conflict with circumstances and political and ideological requirements, the architect and his ideas would be inevitably rejected by the system.

Konysheva Evgeniya V.
EUROPEAN ARCHITECTS AT CONSTRCTION SITES DURING THE FIRST FIVE-YEAR PERIODS (day to day life)

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №4 (32) December, 2010

The theme of this article is the day to day life of European architects during their work in the USSR during the first five-year periods. Issues in Soviet town-planning during Industrialisation are considered through the lens of their lives. The article is based on analysis of a broad range of documents, including ones that have not featured in any earlier research.

Konysheva Evgeniya V., Meerovich Mark G.
ERNST MAY AND OPEN QUESTIONS IN THE HISTORY OF SOVIET ARCHITECTURE (With Reference to the City of Magnitogorsk)

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (30) June, 2010

Using the design and construction of Magnitogorsk as an example, the authors consider common trends in masterplan development and the specific features of Soviet town-planning during the initial stage of industrialization. The issues are considered through the prism of activity of foreign architects in the USSR. The article is based on a review of a broad range of archival materials.