Do svidanja, Narkomfin
A quintessential work of Constructivist architecture, which once used to float on columns but whose space between was filled in to provide additional housing, which also contained a solarium, roof garden, communal kitchen and library among other facilities, and oft-cited as inspiration for Le Courbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, is these days in complete and utter disrepair.
The structure, home to some 50 apartments, including some spacious duplex quarters, is now at less than half capacity with most of the other apartments in disrepair, and is potentially to be demolished by the city of Moscow, its current property holder, unless another course of action is taken (suggestions have included affordable artist studios to expensive middle-class housing).
The building is also listed on the 100 Most Endangered Sites of 2006, presented by the World Monument Fund, a non-profit ‘dedicated to the preservation of historic art and architecture worldwide’.
Too bad we can’t see what those Russian climbers might be able to do with this building, eh?
Related websites:
LostClusters blog
The Art Newspaper article
Moscow Architecture Preservation Society (MAPS)
The Guardian pictures of Narkomfin
[...] Nearly five months ago I wrote a post mentioning the current dilapidated state of a piece of Moscow architecture, the Narkomfin building, designed in the Constructivist style by Moisei Ginzburg. [...]
[...] quick and easy article in the NYTimes published today reviews an exhibition of photographs by Richard Pare on currently at the MoMA. Pare’s photographs taken over a decade study some of the signature buildings built between 1922-1932, a time of quick architectural expansion and collapse (a bit like how my lungs feel after I eat too much peanut butter too quickly) after the Revolution, but also examine some of the more forgotten or abandoned buildings of the time, including a perennial favorite of mine, the Narkomfin Building (and a new favorite, that garage by Melnikov – see the Times slideshow). [...]