The Centrosoyuz building (also known as the People’s Commissariat Building, CSB Building ) is an office building on Myasnitskaya Street in Moscow . Built in 1928-1936 in an international style designed by the French architect Le Corbusier with the participation of Pierre Jeanneret and Nicholas Collie [1] . The facades of the building are simultaneously facing two parallel streets - Myasnitskaya and Akademika Sakharova Avenue [2] . At different times, the building housed various administrative institutions; since 1991, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) and the Federal Financial Monitoring Service have been located in it [3] . An object of cultural heritage of the peoples of Russia of regional significance [4] .
| Office building | |
| The building of the Central Union | |
|---|---|
 The building of the Central Union, March 2017 | |
| A country |  Russia |
| Location | Moscow , Myasnitskaya street , 39 |
| Architectural style | functionalism , modernism ( international style ) |
| Project Author | Le Corbusier , Pierre Jeanneret , Nicholas Collie |
| Architect | |
| First mention | 1928 year |
| Building | 1928 - 1936 |
| Status | Protected by the state 771310006600005 |
Content
History
Territory
The idea of building an office building of the Central Union arose during the time of the NEP [5] [6] . In 1925, at the suggestion of the architect Boris Velikovsky , a place was chosen for the corporate office between two parallel streets, Myasnitskaya, and Novokirovsky Prospect (modern Academic Sakharov Avenue) planned to be laid. The house was planned to be erected at the point of intersection with the projected boulevard , going from the Ogorodnaya Sloboda lane [1] . At the site chosen for construction, there was the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker , made in the spirit of the early Moscow Baroque [7] . By a decree of February 24, 1928, it was decided to demolish it and allocate land for a new building [8] .
Project Competition
Open and closed
In 1928, the All-Russian Society of Civil Engineers announced an open international competition for the best house design of the Central Union, which provided for a spacious office for two thousand jobs, capable of accommodating various groups of premises according to their functionality [9] . The first group included the administrative premises of the Central Union with a total area of 2255 m². The second group included all retail premises and auxiliary premises with an area of 8990 m². The third group included a club with a hall for 600 seats with a stage and a foyer , a gymnasium , a dining room and a library , covering an area of 3170 m². The last functional group included utility rooms - repair shops , warehouses , a boiler room and several apartments for the discussion staff [10] .
The deadline for filing applications was set on June 20, 1928. The selection committee included representatives of the Society of Civil Engineers, the Moscow Architectural Society , the Central Union and the Moscow Soviet : engineers G. Krasin and Leo Serk , architects Mikhail Kryukov , Ivan Mashkov , Victor Vesnin , Jacob Kornfeld and Ivan Kondakov [11] .
Of the 32 projects participating in the open selection, Boris Velikovsky and V. Voinov received the first prize, the second - Anna Kapustina and Leonid Savelyev, the third - Alexander Wegner, Boris Efimovich and Ivan Zvezdin. Fourth place was shared by Noah Trotsky , S. Kozak and T. Zelikman, fifth - Fanya Belostotskaya and 3-new Rosenfeld . However, the tender committee considered that the submitted projects cannot serve as materials for the development of a construction plan [9] .
Until August 10 of the same year, a closed contract-based competition was held, in which foreign architects of the London office of Vernet and Tate, Max Taut from Berlin , the French Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeannere, as well as a group of architects of the Central Union Warehouse Construction Department took part. The latter included brothers Alexander and Victor Vesnin , Sergey Chernyshev , Ivan Leonidov , Andrey Kryachkov and others [11] . All participants were personally selected by the chairman of the Central Union Isidor Lyubimov [6] . The commission excluded the work of the English office from the closed competition projects: the jury found its architectural solutions weak, primitive and conservative [12] . I did not find support from the Moscow City Council for the heavy and monumental plan of Max Taut [13] . The best projects were recognized by the commission as two projects: the joint work of Le Corbusier and Jeanneret and the development of a group of Soviet architects. The first was called elegant and easy, the second commission considered the most thoughtful and functional [14] .
Second Closed
According to the results of open and closed selections, by October 20, 1928, it was decided to accept applications for the third competition. The projects were commissioned by the German architect Peter Berens , the Vesnin brothers, P. Nachman, together with Anatoly Samoilov , Alexander Nikolsky , Andrey Oly and Ivan Zholtovsky . The Association of Modern Architects put forward the work of Ivan Leonidov to the jury. On the advice of acquaintances of Soviet architects, Le Corbusier also presented his project, finalized in accordance with the requirements of the commission [5] . The final selection was carried out between two options - Leonidova and Le Corbusier [15] .
Leonidov developed the project of the House of the Central Union along three coordinate axes for the ultimate generalization of forms. The plan of the 12-story corporate house was implemented in the spirit of functionalism that prevailed in the 1920s and 1930s. The through lobby connected Myasnitskaya Street and the designed Novokirovsky Prospekt; Myasnitskaya Street had wide windows of the exhibition building. Cultural and educational facilities were placed by the architect on the upper floors, taking into account the maximum sound insulation . The extended parallelepiped of the building housed the main office areas facing two glass facades. The ends were presented as blind planes. On the second floor was a horizontal exhibition building. Space was also given to the project by a separate round lobby with elevator shafts [16] .
Innovative in terms of organizing office space, Leonidov’s project influenced American architects, including Ludwig Mies van der Rohe , a leading representative of the international style [17] . Le Corbusier also highly appreciated the architectural ideas of Leonidov and borrowed some of them for his final project of the house of the Central Union [6] .
Winning Project
According to the results of three stages of the competition, the victory was won by the Le Corbusier project. According to one of the unofficial versions, friendship with Soviet architects who were members of the selection committee could have influenced his victory [5] .
The project of the corporate house of the Central Union, developed by a French architect, was innovative in its architectural appearance and technical design both for the Soviet Union, where the ideas of constructivism prevailed in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as for European countries. Le Corbusier suggested using a reinforced concrete frame, explaining his choice with the possibility of using a longitudinal window: with such a layout, the floors of the floors protrude beyond the edges of the columns . Such a technique frees windows from support points, which was fundamentally new for Soviet construction practice. The architect used a double glazing system with opening windows using side hinges . Le Corbusier completed the layout of the central heating , cooling and ventilation system , following the example of his previous work, the competition project of the Palais des Nations in Geneva . For the purpose of thermal insulation of internal premises, he also used curtain wall screens; the building provided for an internal air conditioning system to provide comfortable conditions for workers in all weather conditions. Due to a lack of budget, part of Le Corbusier's proposals was not further implemented [18] .
As in the development of the Savoy villa project, Le Corbusier supplemented the L-shaped structure with semicircular volumes of the main entrance to create a dynamic effect [19] . The architect left the first floor of the house unglazed: it was planned to use the free space between the load-bearing beams as a parking lot [20] .
Construction and improvements
In 1929, the foundation of the building was laid. Le Corbusier himself was to oversee the construction of the complex. To get to know the city, visit art workshops, exhibitions and the construction of the house of the Central Union, he came to Moscow twice - in June 1929 and May 1930 [21] . During these visits, he made some changes to the plan: the architect expanded the buildings in the direction of Novokirovsky Avenue, changed their conjugation. However, in 1931, after losing the competition for the best project of the Palace of Soviets, Le Corbusier refused to cooperate with the USSR, including overseeing the construction of the Central Union’s house [22] .
Until 1933, the construction of the complex was carried out under the supervision of Nikolai Collie . Since 1928, he worked in Paris , adjusting the project in accordance with Soviet standards. Having assumed the post of construction manager, in letters he discussed with Le Corbusier all the changes in the original plan. Together with Collie, the Czechoslovak architect Frantisek Zammer was also responsible for the construction of the building [23] . Unofficially, the construction was supervised by the People's Commissar of Finance and the urban planning theorist Nikolai Milyutin [6] . The construction of the building was completed in the years 1933-1936 [19] .
Soviet experts widely criticized the building of the Central Union in the 1930s. The architect Ivan Fomin spoke of him as follows:
| Corbusier is the architect of a capitalist country. He wants to build beautifully, cheaply, conveniently, in forms that are constructively justified - and this ends his task. Our architect with his architecture brings to our new life a spirit of vivacity, courage and cheerfulness. There are no such words in the vocabulary of Corbusier [24] . |
Alexander Vesnin spoke positively about the building:
| The building of the People’s Commissariat in Moscow on Myasnitskaya Street, designed by architect Corbusier, will undoubtedly be the best building built in Moscow in the last century. Exceptional clarity of architectural thought, clarity in the construction of masses and volumes, purity of proportions, clarity of the ratios of all elements juxtaposed by contrast and nuance, the scale of the entire structure as a whole and its individual parts, the ease and at the same time monumentality, architectural unity, strict simplicity are characteristic for this facility [24] . |
Renovation of the house of the Central Union was carried out in the 1970s: the facades of the building were re-glazed and the ground floor was built up, blocking the passage under the house. The space of office floors was divided into separate rooms, continuous elevators were dismantled. The interiors of the assembly hall, foyer, stairs and ramps were restored [6] .
In 2014, the building was reconstructed at the expense of Rosstat [25] . The work was carried out under the leadership of the chief architect Larisa Savinkina. The workers of the Special Scientific Restoration Production Workshop company replaced windows in the building. In 2015, the House of the Central Union fell into the nomination of the “Restoration of the Year” contest [26] . In the autumn of that year, a monument to Le Corbusier by sculptor Andrei Tyrtyshnikov and architect Anton Voskresensky was erected in the courtyard of the building [27] .
According to the Minister of Economic Development Maxim Oreshnikov , Rosstat and some departments of the Ministry of Economic Development that occupied the house of the Central Union should move to the Moscow-City complex in 2018. The workers of Rosreestr will remain in the historical building [28] .
Architectural Features
The building of the Central Union is the first example of the joint work of Soviet and European architects in the spirit of an international style that has come into vogue everywhere since the early 1950s [29] .
| The huge glazed walls of the house give him a cold, monotonous and inhospitable character. It seems that beyond these walls people should work hard, automatically, dullly, joylessly. This is Americanism, alien to us and unacceptable in Soviet conditions [24] .Schedule Sergey Kozhin |
The building is a vivid example of Le Corbusier’s creative style, “The Five Starting Points of Modern Architecture, ” which he supplemented with the “principle of free circulation of people and air.” The building became one of the first large office complexes in Europe, the features of which are a huge area of facade glazing, open pillars, supporting office blocks, free spaces on the ground floor, horizontal roof [6] . Attracting attention, the wall cladding of the house is made of pink arctic tuff [30] .
According to its layout, the House of the Central Union is similar to the building of the Ministry of Health and Education in Rio de Janeiro , designed by Lucio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer with the participation of Le Corbusier. Other Similar Works by Le Corbusier - Swiss Pavilion in Paris and the United Nations Headquarters in New York . Both buildings are large glazed rectangles [31] [32] .
One of the employees of the CSB recalled the interior of the house of the Central Union:
| When I first came here, I immediately got lost. At first, everything was very unusual. The most interesting in this building for young people and girls was the elevator, which was called a paternoster. The elevator was German-made and really worked on the principle of beads, which are sorted out during prayer. The cabin follows the cabin continuously, the chain arrives at the highest point, and then begins to descend and appears in another window. We were very fond of jumping in and out of the booths. Unfortunately, this elevator is now closed. A huge amount of paper has always been handled here. We drove it on carts on ramps - they were made precisely in order to provide the ministries with a normal workflow system. Of course, like any crazy young people, we rode on ramps in chairs with wheels. And nothing, no one seems to have turned his neck [18] . |
Cinema Building
- In the film " Spring ", the heroine Lyubov Orlova , heading for the film studio , runs out of the entrance to the house of the Central Union.
- In the film “ Zastava Ilyicha ”, the hall on the first floor of the building was shown.
- The elevated paternoster was shown in the film “ The Motley Case ”.
- In the building of the Central Union some episodes of the film “Lev Yashin. Goalkeeper of my dreams ” [18] .
See also
- Constructivism in Moscow architecture
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Bronovitskaya, 2012 , p. 256.
- ↑ Buseva-Davydova, Dlugach, Nashchokina, 1997 , p. 391-392.
- ↑ Zhukova, 2018 , p. 120.
- ↑ Decision of the Moscow City Executive Committee of the Council of People's Deputies No. 647 of 03/23/1987
- ↑ 1 2 3 Ivan Plotnikov. The Trojan horse of Bolshevism . Newspaper.ru (June 10, 2017). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Olga Mamaeva. A house without stairs: the history of the only Le Corbusier building in Russia . RBC (October 6, 2017). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ Buseva-Davydova, Nashchokina, 1996 , p. 179.
- ↑ Moscow Architecture and Construction, 1990 , p. 25.
- ↑ 1 2 Khan-Magomedov, 2001 , p. 490.
- ↑ Construction of Moscow, No. 5, 1928 , p. 24.
- ↑ 1 2 Rogachev, 2015 , p. 393.
- ↑ Khan-Magomedov, 2001 , p. 491.
- ↑ Kazus, 2009 , p. 204-205.
- ↑ Construction of Moscow, No. 11, 1928 , p. 5-6.
- ↑ Khan-Magomedov, 2001 , p. 493.
- ↑ Alexandrov, Khan-Magomedov, 1971 , p. 93-95.
- ↑ Matyushin, 1987 , p. 109.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Lena Vereshchagin. I work in the Le Corbusier building . The Village (July 17, 2017). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 Avdeeva, 2017 , p. 54.
- ↑ Dlugach, Zemtsov, Yaralov, 1981 , p. 239.
- ↑ Danilova, Cantor, Smirnova, 1988 , p. 111.
- ↑ Bronovitskaya, 2012 , p. 257-258.
- ↑ Virginia Vargola. Czech touches in the architecture of the Soviet avant-garde . Radio Praha (October 7, 2016). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Khan-Magomedov, 2001 , p. 496.
- ↑ Kommersant Weekend, 2014 , p. 34-35.
- ↑ Prize of the Year: best books, exhibitions, museums and patrons of arts. Shortlist . The Art Newspaper Russia (March 2015). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ Zhukova, 2018 , p. 119.
- ↑ Rosstat will move from the Le Corbusier building to Moscow City along with the Ministry of Economic Development . Interfax (December 7, 2017). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ Fire in "Cosmos": evacuation is coming from the building of a Moscow hotel . Regnum (February 18, 2018). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ Hripsime Galstyan. Armenian tuff on the streets of Moscow. The building of the Central Union, designed by Le Corbusier . Armenian Museum of Moscow and the culture of nations (May 7, 2018). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ Anna Shevchenko. Joyful as paradise . Russian magazine (October 11, 2012). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
- ↑ Oscar Niemeyer will design the building of the Prince of Asturias Foundation . RIA Novosti (December 6, 2005). Date of treatment July 6, 2018.
Literature
- Avdeeva V. History of foreign art. The architecture of the twentieth century .. - M .: Yurait, 2017. - 110 p. - ISBN 978-5-7996-1891-9 .
- Architecture and construction of Moscow. - M .: Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council of People's Deputies, 1990.
- Bronovitskaya N. Moscow Architecture 1910-1935 .. - M .: Art - XXI century, 2012. - 356 p. - ISBN 978-5-98051-101-2 .
- Buseva-Davydova I., Nashchokina M. Architectural walks in Moscow. - M .: Raven, 1996 .-- 319 p. - ISBN 5-901024-01-X .
- Buseva-Davydova I., Dlugach M., Nashchokina M. Moscow. Architectural guide. - M .: Stroyizdat, 1997 .-- 512 p. - ISBN 5-274-01154-3 .
- Danilova I.E., Kantor E.A., Smirnova L.M. Russia, France: cultural problems of the first decades of the 20th century. - M .: Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, 1988 .-- 315 p.
- Dlugach M., Zemtsov M., Yaralov Yu. Architects of Moscow: XX century. - M .: Moscow Worker, 1981. - T. 1. - 304 p. - ISBN 5-239-00057-3 .
- Zhukova A. Alexandra Zhukova: How to read and understand Moscow . - M .: AST, 2018 .-- 192 p. - ISBN 978-5-17-099870-8 .
- Kazus I.A. Soviet architecture of the 1920s: design organization. - M .: Progress-Tradition, 2009 .-- 464 p. - ISBN 5-89826-291-1 .
- Kommersant Weekend . - M .: Kommersant magazine, 2014. - V. 10. - 64 p.
- Matyushin G. N. Historical study of local lore. - M .: Education, 1987 .-- 205 p.
- Rogachev A.V. Prospectus of Soviet Moscow. The history of the reconstruction of the main streets of the city. 1935-1990. - M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2015 .-- 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-227-05721-1 .
- The construction of Moscow. - M .: Edition of the Moscow Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, 1928. - T. 5.
- The construction of Moscow. - M .: Edition of the Moscow Council of Workers, Peasants and Red Army Deputies, 1928. - T. 11.
- Khan-Magomedov S. Architecture of the Soviet avant-garde: Social problems . - M .: Stroyizdat, 2001 .-- 712 p. - ISBN 5-274-02046-1 .
- Alexandrov P., Khan-Magomedov S. Ivan Leonidov . - M .: Stroyizdat, 1971. - 128 p. - ISBN 978-5-91566-050-1 .
Links
- Drawing and photographs of the building on the website of the Moscow Society for the Protection of Architectural Heritage
- Brief information about the House of the Central Union on the website of Sovarch
- Photos from the excursion on the birthday of Le Corbusier
- ≡ World Museums. Le Corbusier in Moscow. Centrosoyuz . LiveJournal (October 15, 2012).
- ≡ Boris. Excursion to the Central Union on the birthday of Le Corbusier . LiveJournal (October 7, 2012).
- Object of cultural heritage No. 7701535000
- House of the Central Union on the channel "Russia24"
- Historical background of the building
- The plot of the "First" channel on the opening of the monument to Le Corbusier in Moscow