For generations, the trilogy of the Kremlin, Red Square, and the GUM department store marked the undisputed centre of Moscow. The last decades brought sweeping changes to the Russian capital. Today the biggest city in Europe and undoubtfully the heart of Eurasia has many centres. Its new squares and parks have set unprecedented standards in urban design. And the city continues to grow - not least due to the construction of gigantic housing complexes and multifunctional projects. This book guides you through Moscow's history, from the fifteenth century to the present day, taking you to well-known landmarks, industrial areas and residential districts. It includes more than 550 buildings, structures, parks and squares. Well-researched descriptions provide in-depth information on the built environment, while detailed maps and QR codes make it easy to find all the featured projects.
Moscow: A Guide to Soviet Modernist Architecture 1955-1991 provides descriptions of almost 100 buildings from the most underrated period of Soviet architecture. This is the first guide to bring together the architecture made during the three decades between Khrushchev and Gorbachev, from the naive modernism of the "thaw" of the late 1950s through postmodernism. Buildings include the Palace of Youth, the Rossiya cinema, the Pioneer Palace, the Ostankino TV Tower, the TASS headquarters, the "golden brains" of the Academy of Sciences and less well-known structures such as the House of New Life and the Lenin Komsomol Automobile Plant Museum. The authors situate Moscow's postwar architecture within the historical and political context of the Soviet Union, while also referencing developments in international architecture of the period.
This is the first book to show the development of Russian architecture over the past thousand years as a part of the history of Western architecture. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, Russia’s leading architectural historian, departs from the accepted notion that Russian architecture developed independent of outside cultural influences and demonstrates that, to the contrary, the influence of the West extends back to the tenth century and continues into the present. He offers compelling assessments of all the main masterpieces of Russian architecture and frames a radically new architectural history for Russia. The book systematically analyzes Russian buildings in relation to developments in European art, pointing out where familiar European features are expressed in Russian projects. Special attention is directed toward decorations based on Byzantine models; the heritage of Italian master builders and carvers; the impact of architects and others sent by Elizabeth I; the formation of the Russian Imperial Baroque; the Enlightenment in Russian art; and 19th- and 20th-century European influences. With over 300 specially commissioned photographs of sites throughout Russia and western Europe, this magnificent book is both beautiful and groundbreaking.
The last fifteen years of Russian history have profoundly altered Moscow, bringing dramatic changes to the Communist city it was in the eighties. These alterations have increasingly highlighted Moscow's many contrasts and multiple facets. The guide seeks to do more than just recount and illustrate the city's architectural history. It strives to be a tool to study the building trends that have shaped it. After a short introduction and the essential information needed to plan a visit, the book includes several essays that give the city's historical context and then critically consider its possible future developments. The itineraries include about a hundred architectural works, both historical and contemporary, which are fully illustrated with images, drawings and descriptions, and are marked on the front of the map with a reference number corresponding to the section in the book and the icon on the back of the map. The guide also provides information about museums, libraries, institutions, movie theatres, restaurants and gathering places. AUTHORS: Alessandro de Magistris is an architect, and teaches History of architecture and town planning at the Milan Polytechnic. He has authored numerous publications, treatises and articles on the history of contemporary architecture and town planning, published in Italy and abroad. He has, among others, written La Citta di transizione (1988), High-Rise. Percorsi nella storia dell'architettura e dell'urbanistica del XIX e XX secolo attraverso la dimensione verticale (2004). Umberto Zanetti works in Milan and Moscow. He organised and curated the 'MOCKBA XXI' exhibition at the State Museum of Architecture in Moscow - MUAR - and the Triennale di Milano, and 'Gabriele Basilico: Vertical Moscow' at the Cite de l'Architecture in Paris and the Spazio Oberdan in Milan. He has also written many articles about the city of Moscow and its urban transformation. SELLING POINTS: * A contemporary guide to the architecture of Moscow, the purpose of which is to tell about the city through its architectural works * The book's jacket opens out into a map, marking the locations of the architectural works and interesting sites to visit * Includes general information about Moscow, and useful tips for travellers * Each entry includes a photo of the whole building, architectural drawings, a short description, and facts including architect, year of construction, address, website, and how to visit 97 colour, 84 b/w images
The architecture of the Soviet avant-garde of the 1920s and mid?-1930s is attracting more and more attention from both domestic and foreign researchers, but in spite of this, entire regions Ưremain unexplored. One of them, until recently, was the South of Russia ? an area that encomƯpasses the Southern Federal DisƯƯtrict and the North Caucasus Federal District.0The state of this architectural heritage deserves special mention. In the South of Russia during the Second World War, there were active hostilities and mass destruction. Over the course of post-war reconstruction, many buildings were rebuilt in a neoƯclassical style, and a whole layer of avant-Ưgarde works nearly disappeared. During the post-ƯSoviet years, the management of these buildings was no less destructive.0The product of extensive research, this guidebook divides the objects in question into two groups: those that have survived and those that have been lost forever. ƯFortunately, Architectural Guide The South of ƯRussia allows readers to see more than 100 selected buildings of the Soviet avantgarde with their own eyes.
