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Konstantin Melnikov: 1920s-30s

by John McGee

Installation view of several Melnikov models (Photo: Nacasa & Partners)

Ah, the familiar sights of Paris—the 13th-century Notre Dame Cathedral, the 16th-century Louvre Museum, and the 20th-century River Seine parking structure. The last one, of course, was never built. But if Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov's 1925 design had been carried out, Parisians would be able to watch cars spiral over their famous river, climbing up steep ramps raised on the shoulders of two giant figures. 

Melnikov (1890-1974) expressed his individuality in new, modern forms. He shaped concrete into interlocking cylinders and overlapping triangles. He folded wood and glass into accordions of light. Parking garages and workers' clubs—his main commissions—sound mundane, but Melnikov always managed to combine efficiency and movement into sculptural form. “Architecture is not the pursuit of utility or practicality,” he said, “Architecture is Beauty. No other kinds of architecture exist or can exist.” 

Interior of the architect's own house
(Photo: Rishat Mullagildin)

Following the popularity of his USSR pavilion at a 1925 Paris design expo, Melnikov enjoyed success through the end of the decade and into the mid-30s, especially in his adopted hometown of Moscow. This show, Melnikov's first in Japan, gives an overview of work from this period through 28 detailed models of built and unbuilt designs, a timeline sketching Melnikov's milieu (the interdisciplinary search for new forms to reflect the socialist revolution), and a bilingual video tour of several buildings with commentary by Melnikov's American and Russian biographers, various historians, architects and his charming son. 

In the optimism of the post-revolution '20s, artists like Rodchenko and Tatlin sought to fully integrate art with daily life. Architects followed, consolidating their efforts to push out the neo-classicists still clinging to power. The Vesnin brothers, Leonidiv, and other Constructivists came together as the OSA group. The Rationalists formed the ASNOVA group. 

Melnikov, however, stood alone. He was asked to join various organizations but preferred independence. Moreover, his insistence on beauty, art and individual expression seemed at odds with the rationalization and politicization of design favored by his contemporaries. Melnikov refused to place a building's engineering above its soul. 

Beauty is always a subjective term. Melnikov's unadorned, functional diagonals and arcs may not appeal to everybody, but as a modern master, Melnikov is respected for his complex juxtaposition of simple forms, his choreography of light, and his enduring imagination. 

Exterior of the architect's own house,
Moscow (1927)
(Photo: Rishat Mullagildin)

Melnikov believed that each work had to be original, not only relative to other architects but within his own practice. With each of the workers' clubs, for example, Melnikov strove to create unique designs. This applied to both the outer appearance and the interior design. The three projecting spokes of the Rusakov Workers' Club (1927), for instance, operate like a megaphone to amplify the voices of the performers on the stage. Outside, the blocky obtrusions thrust up over the street creating an unmistakable landmark. 

For his own house, built in 1927, Melnikov pushed two vertical cylinders together to create four floors, a wedge of a dining room, a dramatic semi-circular studio lit by 40 hexagonal windows, and a rooftop balcony.

Such brazen individualism was, at best, beyond the collectivist spirit of contemporaneous Soviet politics. As it turned out, by the mid-1930s Stalin had reinstated the neo-classicists, effectively ending the period of architectural experimentation. Melnikov produced virtually nothing after that and was all but forgotten in his own country until the late '60s. This international touring exhibition is finally bringing him the broader attention he deserves. 

The Konstantin Melnikov: 1920s-30s exhibition was held Nov-Dec 2002 at Gallery MA in Nogizaka, Tokyo, Japan.

©2007 John McGee

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