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Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture (Russian: Сталинская архитектура), mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is an architectural style that defined the institutional aesthetics of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin — particularly between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace of the Soviets was officially approved) and 1956 (when Nikita Khrushchev condemned what he saw as the "excesses" of past decades and disbanded the Soviet Academy of Architecture). Stalinist architecture is associated with the Socialist realism school of art and architecture.
As part of the Soviet policy of rationalization of the country, all cities were built to a general development plan. Each was divided into districts, with allotments based on the city's geography. Projects would be designed for whole districts, visibly transforming a city's architectural image.[citation needed]
The interaction of the state with the architects would prove to be one of the features of this time. The same building could be declared a formalist blasphemy and then receive the greatest praise the next year, as happened to Ivan Zholtovsky and his Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya in 1949–50.[citation needed] Authentic styles like Zholtovsky's Renaissance Revival, Ivan Fomin's St. Petersburg Neoclassical architecture and Art Deco adaptation by Alexey Dushkin and Vladimir Shchuko coexisted with imitations and eclecticism that became characteristic of that era.[citation needed]
Regarding neoclassicalism, Stalin notably remarked, "People have the right to pillars!"
The Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki (Сталинские высотки) are a group of skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style. Their English-language nickname is the "Seven Sisters"[citation needed]. They were built officially from 1947 to 1953 (some work extended years past official completion dates) in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles and the technology used in building American skyscrapers.
The seven skyscrapers are the Hotel Ukraina, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, the Kudrinskaya Square Building, the Leningradskaya Hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia main building, the main building of Moscow State University, and the Red Gate Building.
In terms of construction methods, most of the structures, underneath the wet stucco walls, are simple brick masonry. Exceptions were Andrei Burov's medium-sized concrete block panel houses (such as the Lace building, 1939–41) and large buildings like the Seven Sisters, which necessitated the use of concrete. The masonry naturally dictated narrow windows, thus leaving a large wall area to be decorated. Fireproof terracotta finishes were introduced during the early 1950s, although this was rarely used outside of Moscow. Most of the roofing was traditional wooden trusses covered with metallic sheets.
About 1948, construction technology improved – at least in Moscow – as faster and cheaper processes became available. Houses also became safer by eliminating wooden ceilings and partitions. The standardized buildings of 1948–1955 had the same housing quality as the Stalinist classics and are classified as such by real estate agents, but are excluded from the scope of Stalinist architecture. Ideologically they belong to mass housing, an intermediate phase before Nikita Khrushchev's standardized buildings known as Khrushchyovka.
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Stalinist architecture
Stalinist architecture (Russian: Сталинская архитектура), mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is an architectural style that defined the institutional aesthetics of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin — particularly between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace of the Soviets was officially approved) and 1956 (when Nikita Khrushchev condemned what he saw as the "excesses" of past decades and disbanded the Soviet Academy of Architecture). Stalinist architecture is associated with the Socialist realism school of art and architecture.
As part of the Soviet policy of rationalization of the country, all cities were built to a general development plan. Each was divided into districts, with allotments based on the city's geography. Projects would be designed for whole districts, visibly transforming a city's architectural image.[citation needed]
The interaction of the state with the architects would prove to be one of the features of this time. The same building could be declared a formalist blasphemy and then receive the greatest praise the next year, as happened to Ivan Zholtovsky and his Bolshaya Kaluzhskaya in 1949–50.[citation needed] Authentic styles like Zholtovsky's Renaissance Revival, Ivan Fomin's St. Petersburg Neoclassical architecture and Art Deco adaptation by Alexey Dushkin and Vladimir Shchuko coexisted with imitations and eclecticism that became characteristic of that era.[citation needed]
Regarding neoclassicalism, Stalin notably remarked, "People have the right to pillars!"
The Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki (Сталинские высотки) are a group of skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style. Their English-language nickname is the "Seven Sisters"[citation needed]. They were built officially from 1947 to 1953 (some work extended years past official completion dates) in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles and the technology used in building American skyscrapers.
The seven skyscrapers are the Hotel Ukraina, the Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building, the Kudrinskaya Square Building, the Leningradskaya Hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia main building, the main building of Moscow State University, and the Red Gate Building.
In terms of construction methods, most of the structures, underneath the wet stucco walls, are simple brick masonry. Exceptions were Andrei Burov's medium-sized concrete block panel houses (such as the Lace building, 1939–41) and large buildings like the Seven Sisters, which necessitated the use of concrete. The masonry naturally dictated narrow windows, thus leaving a large wall area to be decorated. Fireproof terracotta finishes were introduced during the early 1950s, although this was rarely used outside of Moscow. Most of the roofing was traditional wooden trusses covered with metallic sheets.
About 1948, construction technology improved – at least in Moscow – as faster and cheaper processes became available. Houses also became safer by eliminating wooden ceilings and partitions. The standardized buildings of 1948–1955 had the same housing quality as the Stalinist classics and are classified as such by real estate agents, but are excluded from the scope of Stalinist architecture. Ideologically they belong to mass housing, an intermediate phase before Nikita Khrushchev's standardized buildings known as Khrushchyovka.