23 May, 2006

Москва невоплощенная

'Unrealised Moscow' offers illustrations of proposed architectural projects in Stalinist Moscow.

The scale and brash grandeur of these monumental designs is astonishing. The only one I already knew about, the abortive Dom Sovetov (Palace of Soviets), was to have been the tallest building in the world, 415 m (1365') tall, of which 100m would have been a vast statue of Lenin. The other plans were almost as grandiose, and just as overpowering.

It's a fascinating insight into Soviet architects' (in terms of both social- and civil engineering) Neo-Classical yet futuristic dreams, which were abandoned in 1955 with the Central Committee's condemnation of 'excesses and over-ornamentation in architecture'.