1919-1930 Constructivism


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El Lissitzky
Rodchenko
Melnikov
Malevich
Tatlin
Vesnin brothers
Leonidov
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socialist programme
emphasis on graphic and typographic design
dynamism
structural gymnastics
industrial aesthetics
fantastical architectural propositions
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In constructivists' approach to architecture I greatly admire their attempts to design and advocate innovative, and sometimes hardly feasible ways of living. The propositions often had a fantastical futuristic quality them, I find that courage of thought which led constructivists in the early 20th century. Let's look at Konstantin Melnikov's "Sonata of Sleep" - colosseum of slumber.

Following the implementation of Stalin's Five-Year Plan – and in the wake of food rationing and extended work hours – "the shock-troops of Communism were edging perilously close to physical and mental exhaustion: what they needed was rest." Soviet government thus "announced a competition to design a garden suburb outside Moscow, where workers could be sent to recuperate from the strains of factory labor."

K. Melnikov proposed a sort of  'sleep academy' - building that consisted of two large dormitories either side of a central block, and the dormitories each had sloping floors, which was supposed to obviate the need for pillows. At either end of the long buildings were to be situated control booths, where technicians would command instruments to regulate the temperature, humidity, and air pressure, as well as to waft scents and "rarefied condensed air" through the halls.. Specialists working "according to scientific facts" would transmit from the control centre a range of sounds gauged to intensify the process of slumber. The rustle of leaves, the cooing of nightingales, or the soft murmur of waves would instantly relax the most overwrought veteran of the metropolis. Should these fail, the mechanized beds would then begin gently to rock until consciousness was lost.