The architect Konstantin Melnikov - a famous domestic artist, is considered one of the leaders of the Soviet avant-garde of the 20-30s. As a result, it was he who was recognized as the main Soviet architect of those years around the world. Moreover, in the USSR itself, his creative concept was often criticized, accusing him of formalism. As a result, he was practically excommunicated, he completed his last project in 1936. In 1990, UNESCO joined the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the master. Currently, he is considered one of the most prominent Russian architects in the 20th century.
Childhood and youth
The architect Konstantin Melnikov was born in Moscow in 1890. His father was from the Nizhny Novgorod province. Passing military service in Voskresensk, he married the peasant Elena Repkina. Shortly after the wedding, the young moved to Moscow. It was a patriarchal and large family in which Konstantin became the third child among the surviving children.
Since the father of the hero of our article was burdened by official service, the family soon moved to the village, where everything was much more familiar to him. They began to raise cows and sell meat in the capital.
Melnikov received his primary education at a parish school. From childhood, he stood out among peers with his ability for painting and fiction.
In 1903, his parents gave him to the icon painting workshop in Maryina Grove. But the hero of our article really missed the house and after a week dropped out. Soon, Melnikov's parents met the thrush Avdotya, who often visited the house of the famous engineer Vladimir Chaplin. So, Konstantin managed to arrange in a trading house, which was called "V. Zalessky and V. Chaplin." On the first day, the hero of our article painted a cast-iron firebox, earning praise.
Getting a profession
In 1905, Melnikov from the second time entered the capital's school of sculpture and architecture. He passed the entrance exam in art disciplines without any problems, but he had to study the Russian language additionally. Chaplin takes care of this, who appreciated the talent of the future architect. In fact, he introduced the boy to his family.
In total, he has been studying at the school for 12 years, receiving a general education, and then mastering painting and architecture. It is interesting that he himself admitted that architecture was too boring for him, but he nevertheless entered the architectural department at the insistence of Chaplin.
His first independent work was the design of the lobby in the Roman style in the context. As a student at the school, the hero of our article already works as assistants at various construction sites. For example, as a pre-diploma work, it is developing the facades of the first Russian automobile plant AMO. He graduated from college in 1917.
Since 1918, he began working in the architectural and planning workshop, to which he was invited by the famous architect and his teacher at the school, Ivan Zholtkovsky. This is the first architectural artel in the Soviet Union under the patronage of the state. Among the first projects was the New Moscow plan, housing for workers, people's houses.
First orders
The architect Konstantin Melnikov received his first independent order in 1918. He was developing a village project for employees of the Alekseevskaya Psychiatric Hospital. He also developed projects for the Butyrsky district, plans for the Khodynsky field as part of the New Moscow plan, but most of them were never implemented. Early work was done in the neoclassical style.
In 1920, the architect Konstantin Melnikov became a professor at the Higher art and technical workshops. At that time, he was attracted to the concept of Landowski, he even joined the Association of New Architects.
Rejection of Neoclassicism
In the early 1920s, Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov refuses traditionalist trends, moves away from neoclassicism, starting to create works in a fundamentally new style. His works were presented at an exhibition in Moscow in 1923. Pavilion "Makhorka" was his first project, implemented in an innovative spirit.
Customers planned to build a one-story building, but Melnikov proposed instead to make a conceptual building with huge planes for advertising posters, cantilevered overhangs, an open spiral staircase, and transparent glazing. In this case, do not use structural supports.
The project was very different from everything that was presented at the exhibition, in addition, customers reacted negatively to it. But he was supported by the chief architect Alexei Shchusev, to whom Melnikov was grateful until the end of his life, even despite some disagreements in the future.
As a result, he became the youngest architect to receive an order to form a pavilion. True, very insignificant. When working on "Makhorka" Konstantin Melnikov, whose biography is given in this article, used a fundamentally new approach, outlining architectural and constructive techniques that predetermined the entire architectural appearance of the century.
Sarcophagus for the leader
In 1924, Melnikov received an offer to participate in the design of the sarcophagus for Lenin's mausoleum. After the death of the leader, the question arose of perpetuating his memory. Schusev worked on the project itself.
The Soviet government commission, led by Dzerzhinsky, recognized Melnikov's project as the best. The author intentionally abandoned the shape of the coffin with a glass hole. According to his idea, the sarcophagus was supposed to be all made of glass and an unusual geometric shape. He was assigned to build a sarcophagus in 10 days.
He performed his function until 1941, when the body of Lenin was evacuated to Tyumen. The further fate of the sarcophagus is unknown.
Order in trade
The desire of the Soviet authorities to streamline trade led to the need to build a market on a wasteland formed in the Greater Sukharevsky Lane. For the Novo-Sukharevsky market, Melnikov proposed a fundamentally new project, which was implemented by 1926.
According to his idea, the same type of trading pavilions made of wood should appear on the entire area allocated for development. From 4 to 12 blocks gathered in rows. Thanks to this layout, free space appeared in front of each kiosk. Such a project made it possible to rationally use the territory, erect pavilions in a short time, create comfortable conditions for buyers and sellers. The project features allowed buyers to immediately see all the goods presented.
The market worked until 1930. After, at this place appeared avtoremehbaza. Currently, a heavily rebuilt office building has been preserved.
Melnikov's work in Paris
In 1924, the Soviet Union received an offer to participate in the International Exhibition of Industrial and Decorative Art, which was held in Paris. A closed competition was announced for the design of the pavilions of the USSR. The best project was recognized Melnikov. At the beginning of 1925, the hero of our article went to the French capital with his wife and two children to begin the construction of the pavilion.
It was a two-story building made of wood. The outer walls were mostly glazed. An open staircase led to the second floor, on which there was an original ceiling in the form of inclined wooden plates that crossed each other. In Paris, the great Russian architect developed a project to develop a site for the Trade Sector exhibition. At this place appeared small trading stalls that were sawtoothly blocked with each other.
The heyday of creativity
Researchers consider the years from 1927 to 1933 to be the “golden period” of creativity. The author presented many innovative works that did not fit into existing schools and directions, but delighted everyone around. These were residential buildings, clubs and various other public buildings. They significantly changed the face of Moscow at that time.
For example, after success in Paris, he received an order for a thousand-car garage in Paris. The architect developed two options: a translucent, half-glass cube and a building with cantilever-suspended structures, raised above the ground. True, in France it was not possible to realize the ideas, but Melnikov used the ideas in the construction of garages in Moscow.
In 1926, the hero of our article came up with a proposal to arrange a direct-flow car parking system that would reduce interference during check-in and check-out. Based on this system, he designed the Bakhmetyevsky garage. It was made in the form of a parallelogram with four different facades. Such a system allowed placing 104 Leyland buses in these garages, saving space. For example, when entering and leaving the parking lot, the bus avoided unnecessary maneuvering and reversing. The Bakhmetyevsky garage itself is made without partitions as an indoor arena. Metal structures for the building were developed by engineer Vladimir Shukhov.
In 1931, Melnikov participated in the reconstruction of the theater. Pushkin. Now it is the Moscow Drama Theater, which today bears the name of the great poet. The building is located at Tverskaya Boulevard, house 23. The Melnikov project has only partially survived to this day.
In work on the theater. Pushkin was helped by the Stenberg brothers - George and Vladimir.
In 1929, Melnikov designs the Intourist garage. The facade was made in the form of a screen, in the center of which cars that drove along the inner ramp in the form of a spiral flashed almost continuously. True, the idea of the Intourist garage was only partially realized by 1934. Later, the building was often rebuilt.
In 1936, Melnikov designed the garage of the State Planning Commission. It is a one-story building, which is illuminated with a round window overlooking Aviamotornaya Street. In 1955, the eighth taxi fleet was transferred here. Now the company "Good Old Taxi" is working on the basis of the Gosplan's garage. And this garage was often rebuilt, in 1997 it was attributed to historical and cultural monuments, the privatization of which was allowed. This is the latest construction of Melnikov, which has survived to this day.
In disgrace
At the end of the 30s, it became increasingly difficult for Melnikov to realize his innovative ideas. He is increasingly criticized; in Soviet architecture, a system is established that contradicts its basic principles.
In 1949, the hero of our article was sent to teach at the Department of Architecture at the Road Institute in Saratov. He has been working there for about two years, while participating in contests for the design of a department store in Saratov, reconstruction of Kirov Square, and the development of the village of Vyazovka. At the same time, in the village of Iskorost on the territory of modern Ukraine, a monument is erected twice to the hero of the Soviet Union Semyon Kozak, which becomes his last completed project. Like many other works, this is becoming a real attraction. Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov on all other projects is refused.
In 1951 he was returned to Moscow, to the Civil Engineering Institute. A year later, he was approved as a professor. At the same time, the hero of our article leaves no hope of continuing to build new buildings. He participates in open competitions, designs a monument dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Russia and Ukraine, the Pantheon of prominent figures of the state. But at that time neo-academism dominated Soviet architecture, so Melnikov’s projects went almost unnoticed.
In 1958, he transferred to the correspondence engineering and construction institute, where he worked until his death. He teaches descriptive geometry, architectural design, and graphics. Then he is preparing a draft of the capital's Palace of Soviets. This work is a real protest among domestic architects.
At the same time, Melnikov's former merits are still appreciated. In 1965 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Architecture. Researcher of his heritage Selim Khan-Magomedov, who made a report on the work of the hero of our article at a meeting of the academic council, notes that for most of those present this information was new, surprising, they began to look at the architect differently.
In the early 70s, Melnikov’s health deteriorated. A few years later, an exacerbation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia begins, with which he struggled for many years. In November 1974, he dies in Moscow at the age of 84.
Among the implemented architectural works are several dozen projects. But it is worth noting that about the same number of pans were never implemented.
To this day, the house-workshop of Konstantin Melnikov, also known as the house of Melnikov, has been preserved. This is a single-apartment residential building, built in the spirit of Soviet avant-garde. Its construction lasted from 1927 to 1929 in Krivoarbatsky Lane. Melnikov designed and built it for himself and his family.
It is believed that this house became the pinnacle of his work. It has unique innovative features, unexpected artistic images, the composition turned out to be very voluminous, and the layout was thought out in detail. A residential mansion for one apartment in the center of the Soviet capital became a truly unique building for that time. Now it houses the Museum of the Melnikovs and Shchusev.
Architect Style
Modern researchers note that for many years Melnikov’s work was characterized in the spirit of constructivism due to the one-sided popularization of the avant-garde. In fact, his style refers to architectural rationalism.
It is worth noting that, with known features and external similarities, his work was outside the architectural trends that were popular in those years. So, the main thesis of Melnikov formulates a much more complex basis of functionalism, which states that the form should follow the function. Melnikov often invested the same function in completely different volumetric and spatial forms, moreover, working on a series of typical buildings, for example, garages or clubs. With his work, he repeatedly proved that the value for the form itself and architecture lies in the ability to contain a variety of functions. For example, he used the shape of a cylinder when designing his own apartment building, as well as a club, a communal building.
In addition to form and function, Melnikov also actively used architectural designs in his work . In projects, he put forward a large number of constructive innovative solutions. These could be kinetic structures, the so-called "living walls", cantilevered outriggers, original supporting structures, some of which were put into practice.
At the same time, it must be emphasized that his relations with the constructivists did not openly develop. Those considered him a formalist, because of his desire for the artistic-figurative expressiveness of architecture, as well as its dynamism and expressiveness, which irritated many.
In the 1920s and 1930s, there was only one professional magazine called Modern Architecture. For all the time, Melnikov was never mentioned in it, although it was precisely these years that his work flourished, large-scale projects were implemented that radically changed the appearance of the capital. Melnikov was also never invited to exhibitions organized by members of the Association of Modern Architects. Emphasis not noticed by colleagues during life, after death, the hero of our article became one of the most significant Russian architects in the 20th century.