The most unusual architectural structures on the planet. House of Mirrors, Flint, USA

The Statue of Liberty, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower and the Great Sphinx of Egypt are probably known to everyone. However, with all these famous, and seemingly well-known works of art, there are little-known interesting facts that have fallen out of the attention of modern pop culture.

1. Secret apartment in the Eiffel Tower

Few people know that the Eiffel Tower has a secret apartment hidden on the top level of the tower. This apartment belonged to Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who designed the tower. In 1890, a year after the opening of the Eiffel Tower, the French writer Henri Girard said that Gustave Eiffel was the envy of all Paris, not because Gustave was the creator of the tower, but because he had an apartment on it. top.

Many celebrities came to visit Eiffel, including Thomas Edison. Eiffel was even offered a lot of money just to spend the night in his apartment. This room is now open to the public.

2. Inspiration for the painting “The Scream”

Edvard Munch's The Scream is one of the most iconic paintings of the 20th century. Interestingly, they tried to steal it several times. According to Munch himself, he was inspired to create “The Scream” by the day when he was walking with his friends and saw that “the sky turned red like blood,” while he was incredibly tired and heard “a huge endless scream of nature.”

For many years it was believed that this was Munch's imagination, until it was recently discovered that the sky on this day was probably actually red as a result of the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa volcano in Indonesia. The impact of the volcano was felt even in New York, where the sky also turned red.

3. Creator of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The famous Leaning Tower in the Italian city of Pisa holds many secrets. Basically, everyone knows about the tilt of the tower due to the unstable and soft soil under its base. However, no one knows who built this bell tower for the Cathedral of Pisa. The main reason for this was that the tower took 200 years to build. Historians are accustomed to thinking that the structure was designed by Bonanno Pisano, but a more likely architect may be Diotisalvi, who designed the city's baptistery and the bell tower of San Nicola.

4. The chain at the foot of the Statue of Liberty

In 2011, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was asked what the Statue of Liberty symbolized. She replied: “This is a symbol for Americans to remember the mistakes of other countries and never repeat them.” Unfortunately, Sarah Palin was completely wrong, as the statue symbolizes exactly the opposite.

Édouard de Laboulaye, a prominent French politician and opponent of slavery and the death penalty who influenced the creation of the Statue of Liberty, was a staunch supporter of President Lincoln, who fought for the abolition of slavery. The statue did not warn the United States of its mistakes, but was given to honor freedom, democracy and the abolition of slavery. That is why there is a broken chain at the feet of the Statue of Liberty, which is usually not visible to tourists.

5. The missing beard of the Sphinx

Initially, the Sphinx was built without a beard, which was added much later. Most likely, the Sphinx's beard was attached to show the relationship with Horemakhet, one of the Egyptian gods. Scientists also suggest that the beard may have been added to associate the Sphinx with the Egyptian pharaohs, who often wore artificial beards as a symbol of power and their connection with the god Osiris. One-thirtieth of the beard is currently in the British Museum.

6. Da Vinci's Hidden Music

In 2007, Giovanni Maria Pala, an Italian computer technician and musician, claimed that he had deciphered the hidden notes in Da Vinci's famous painting The Last Supper. According to Pal, if you draw five lines of a linear stave across the top of a famous painting, the hands of Jesus Christ, the hands of his apostles, and the loaves of bread on the table would represent musical notes that would make sense if read from right to left. Da Vinci was known as a music fan who included musical riddles in his works, and they had to be read from right to left. Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the specialized Da Vinci Museum in Tuscany, said that Pal's assumption may be quite probable.

7. Color of the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed objects in the world. Interestingly, the US Navy protested the construction of the bridge because they were afraid that if the bridge was blown up, it would become a trap for ships in San Francisco Harbor. Once consent has been given, the Navy will not like the color it was supposed to be painted. The Army wanted to paint the bridge black and yellow so it would be visible in the fog. Eventually, the bridge's architect, Irving Morrow, convinced the military to paint the bridge a color similar to the base coat of primer - dark orange.

The portrait of Madame X, featuring Virginia Avegno Gautreau, is a famous painting by a young American immigrant and celebrity named John Singer Sargent. However, after the painting was first shown at the Salon exhibition, the portrait was sharply criticized and ridiculed for its “obscenity.” The main reason for the criticism was the strap that had slipped onto the right shoulder of the model. The scandal that followed was so great that Sargent was forced to move to Britain. The Gautreau family begged Sargent to remove the painting from the gallery and not defame their daughter. As a result, Sargent redrew the strap into what is seen in the portrait today.

9. Mount Rushmore Time Capsule

It is a well-known fact that the sculptural composition of Mount Rushmore is unfinished; few people know that it contains a time capsule. During the construction of Mount Rushmore, its chief architect Borglum wanted to create a large hall that would house all the important documents in American history. Unfortunately, due to lack of money, he did not complete his work, and soon died in 1941. In 1998, the Constitution, 16 enamel tiles with text from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, along with Borglum's memoirs and biographies of the presidents whose faces were carved into the mountain, were placed in a titanium vault and sealed inside the unfinished hall.

10. Michelangelo and his “Last Judgment”

Shortly before his death, Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to create a painting of the Last Judgment on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. The images were supposed to represent the last day of the world, when Jesus Christ will return to the world. However, a number of controversies arose when Michelangelo painted several nude characters showing their genitals, including Jesus Christ and his mother Mary. This did not go down well with the cardinal, who began to convince everyone that the drawing should be completely removed or subjected to strict censorship.

Pope Biagio da Cesena's master of ceremonies also argued for the censorship or complete removal of the design, which he said was better suited to display in a public bath or drinking establishment rather than in a church. This angered Michelangelo, who then painted Cesena's face to the god of the underworld, Minos. He also added donkey ears to him, hinting at Cesena's stupidity.

Continuing the theme from around the world. Some admire these monuments, others are perplexed. But no one remains indifferent.

It is unlikely that anyone will seriously argue with the fact that construction is one of the most important professional areas in the life of the entire society. It is difficult to even imagine a world without all those achievements in the field of architecture that all modern people enjoy with such pleasure. Naturally, the history of humankind’s construction experience goes back more than one thousand years. Over all this time, many interesting facts about construction have accumulated, and you will now learn about the most interesting of them.

Inca bridges

The ropes from which these bridges were constructed were woven from fibrous grasses, and the ropes themselves sometimes reached the thickness of a human hand and a length of more than 53 meters. The Incas were engaged in maintaining the condition of the bridge and its repairs by special workers who were completely freed from other activities. The process of repairing such a suspension bridge was very dangerous and often fatal for the maintenance personnel. Today, only one bridge built by the Incas remains in the world.

It is more than 500 years old, it is called Q "eswachaka and it spans the Apurimac River in the province of Canas (Peru). Local residents to this day, preserving traditions, maintain it in proper condition and regularly use it for crossing, although its modern one exists very nearby , concrete brother.

Another bridge in Peru

Empire State Building

The Empire State Building serves as the main lightning rod for all houses and buildings in the surrounding area, so it is struck by lightning at least 100 times a year. The construction of this skyscraper cost $41 million, which was a huge amount in the 30s of the last century. The building weighs 365,000 tons and has a volume of 1,048,000 m3. For forty-one years, this building was the tallest structure in the world.

Houses made from dung

And not so long ago, the Indonesian company EcoFaeBrick began to produce bricks, which contain cattle manure, which is present in abundance in Indonesia. The manufacturer claims that this environmentally friendly material is 20% lighter and 20% stronger than its clay counterpart. In addition, it is cheaper to produce.

But it remains a mystery to me whether such building material does not emit a specific aroma when heated in the sun’s rays. Otherwise, obviously living in a house...made of cow poop is a real process of getting closer to nature. That is why I prefer more technologically advanced materials when repairing or building, for example, in modern times, it is irreplaceable, you can read about it on the website armatura-optom.ru.

Buddha statue

“People in all provinces are strictly prohibited from possessing any swords, including short swords, bows, spears, firearms or any other weapons. Owning weapons makes it difficult to collect taxes and, as a rule, incites uprisings,” he decided. And he ordered his troops to collect weapons from all the peasants for the purpose of melting them down (this selection of weapons from the population would later be called sword hunting). The resulting metal was used to make staples and nails, which were then used by more than 50,000 Japanese artisans over the course of 3 years to build a huge wooden Buddha statue at H?k?-ji Temple (Kyoto). According to the chronicles, this 24-meter statue, called Kyoto Daibutsu, was so large that it obscured the sun and mountains. However, on August 14, 1596, a powerful earthquake destroyed both the temple itself and the huge Buddha statue. After the earthquake, in 1602 they tried to restore it by casting the destroyed parts of the statue in bronze, but again fate had its own way. During the casting process, careless workers caused a fire and completely burned the magnificent statue.

Now the largest man-made Buddha figure in the world is the 120-meter statue Ushiku Daibutsu, built in 1995 in Ibaraki Prefecture, 50 km from Tokyo.

The Pyramid of Cheops

It is believed that the process of constructing the pyramid lasted 20 years, and its original dimensions were even larger. Its mass is now estimated at approximately 5.9 million tons, its volume at 2,500,000 m3. And if we take as a basis that the construction of the pyramid lasted 20 years, it is possible to calculate that about 800 tons of stone were laid by workers per day. In addition, since the Cheops pyramid consists of approximately 2.3 million stone blocks, over the course of 20 years, builders moved an average of 12 blocks every hour.

Almost all the stone blocks that make up this amazing structure fit together with incredibly high precision. Modern scientists, having studied this issue, have confirmed that the gaps between them do not exceed 0.5 millimeters.

Pentagon Pentagon

The third condition was the ability of the building floor to withstand a weight of 732 kg per m2. This requirement arose from the assumption that the Pentagon, if necessary, could be used as a storage facility.

Construction of the Pentagon lasted approximately 16 months, and cost the American budget a tidy sum - $83 million. Its dimensions are also impressive: despite the fact that the height of the building is quite small - 23 m, each of the five sides of the building is 281 meters in length. To get around the Pentagon building, a person will need to walk about 20 minutes at a normal pace.
The building area is approximately 600,000 m2, of which more than half is occupied by office space. The Pentagon has five sides, five floors above ground, two levels underground and 28.2 km of corridors.

The great Wall of China

There is an opinion that the Great Wall of China is the only human structure visible not only from space, but also from the Moon itself. Regarding the Moon, we can definitely say that this is a myth, and scientists have proven this more than once. But the fact that the Chinese wall is visible in low Earth orbit is still under debate. Moreover, these disputes have been resolved more than once even in courtrooms. At least, the astronauts claim that none of them was able to see the Chinese wall from space with the naked eye. However, even the European Space Agency once tried to officially prove that this was possible by posting an alleged photo of the wall on its website. However, quite soon representatives of this organization refuted their own information, saying that the river appeared in the photo. So, most likely, not a single existing structure on earth is visible from space. Even the Great Wall of China, no matter how much anyone would like it.

John Hancock Tower

However, despite all its masterpiece, this skyscraper is considered, perhaps, the most failed high-rise building of the 20th century. And there are many reasons for this. Firstly, the completion of its construction, which was planned for 1971, had to be postponed for as much as 5 years due to the fact that the process of constructing the building damaged almost all nearby buildings. Including the famous Trinity Church.

The project owners had to pay for all the construction miscalculations and repair work. And in total, the cost of the tower, which was originally $75 million, increased to $175 million. But the most important problem of the skyscraper was its large windows (1.2 m x 3.4 m), glazed with anti-reflective glass. The tower was less than a month old when, one bad day, dozens of glasses began to collapse onto the pavement on their own. The glass that did not fall out also behaved strangely - they made unusual sounds, “sang,” burst and cracked. It looked so mysterious, frightening and mystical that people fled the streets in panic and flatly refused to work in the ominous skyscraper. The architects tore their hair out, gave numerous explanations, apologized and hired workers to monitor the appearance of new cracks in the glass. But, however, they could not understand the reason for this behavior of the windows.

In October 1973, the tower's owners announced that they were forced to replace all 10,344 panes of glass at a cost of almost $7 million. Funny, about 5,000 of the replaced but intact panes were subsequently used elsewhere, and all of them were invariably... ordinary . Replacing this amount of glass took several months. At this time, many window openings were blocked with plywood boards, and soon the building among the common people acquired the shameful nickname of the Plywood Palace. People joked that Hancock Tower became the tallest plywood building.

But the windows turned out to be not the only problem with the built tower. Those few residents of Boston who dared to work in it constantly complained of “sea sickness” and motion sickness, because the skyscraper was noticeably swaying in the wind.
The building was strengthened, examined and often shrugged, unable to understand what evil spell was cast on it. Ultimately, several more millions were poured into it. And only after a long and expensive study in a wind tunnel did they understand the reasons. It turned out that the structure of the building, under the influence of wind and due to thermal stress between the internal and external glass panels, seemed to twist and lose its stability. It was the laws of physics, and not otherworldly forces, that were responsible for this.

Eiffel Tower

But the tower turned out to be very “tenacious”, even despite the fact that under the influence of the wind it really sways noticeably. 72 engineers and mathematicians took part in the design and construction of the tower, the name of each of whom is engraved on their “brainchild”. Another interesting fact about the world famous tower is that every 7 years a large team of painters completely repaints it brown. And this process takes no less than 50 tons of paint, and the color of this paint itself even began to be called “Eiffel Tower Brown.”

It’s curious, but it was thanks to the tower that the famous spy Mata Hari was “figured out.” Having hung a radio receiver on the tower in 1917, French counterintelligence soldiers were able to track its encryption, after which Hari was caught.
During the German occupation, the Nazis closed the tower to the public.

Nazi soldiers tried to hang a swastika on the spire of the structure, but it did not last even a day, torn off by the wind. In 1944, when Allied troops were approaching the French capital, Hitler ordered Dietrich von Klotzing, the military governor of Paris, to blow up the Eiffel Tower, but he flatly refused to do so under threat of death. In 1960, Charles de Gaulle also wanted to dismantle the tower, albeit temporarily, moving it to Montreal for the Expo 67 exhibition. However, this plan was flatly rejected by the government and the public.

The Great Wall of China begins in the northern city of Shanhai-guan (located on the shores of the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea) and is the easternmost point of the Long Wall (that is what the Chinese call this structure).

Considering that for the Chinese the Great Wall of China symbolizes the earthen dragon, its head is the Laoluntou Tower (Dragon Head), from which this grandiose structure originates. Moreover, it is interesting that Laoluntou is not only the beginning of the Great Wall of China, but also the only place in China where it is washed by the sea, and where it directly extends 23 meters into the bay.

From Laoluntou, the Great Wall of China zigzags across half the country into the center of China and ends near the city of Jiayuguan - this is where it is best preserved. Despite the fact that the fortpost here was built back in the 14th century, it was constantly restored and strengthened, thanks to which over time it became the best outpost of the Celestial Empire.

According to one legend, the craftsmen so accurately calculated the amount of material needed for the construction of the walls that when the construction was completed, only one brick remained, which, as a symbol of respect for the ancient builders, was subsequently placed on the arch of the outer wall of the gate facing the west.

The outpost was erected near Jiayuyoshan Mountain and it consists of a semicircular outer adobe wall in front of the main gate, a moat, a compacted earthen embankment and an inner wall. As for the gates, they are located on the eastern and western sides of the outpost. Here is the Yuntai Tower - it is interesting because on its internal walls you can see carved bas-reliefs of heavenly kings and Buddhist texts.

The longest glass bridge in the world was opened in China's Shiniuzhai National Park, located in Huan Province. The 300-meter-long structure is located at an altitude of 180 meters and connects the peaks of Stone Buddha Mountain. The bridge existed here before, but then it was wooden. In 2014, during renovations, engineers replaced some of the wooden spans with glass ones; visitors to the park liked the idea so much that this year they built an all-glass bridge and called it “Bridge of Heroes.” Durable 24 mm thick glass stands on steel cables and metal structures that can withstand almost any load. The designers say that you can even jump on the bridge. The glass bridge has already become one of the main attractions of the park, however, it will not remain the longest for long, since an even longer bridge is already being built in another national park in the same province.

In the Øresund Strait, on a 16-kilometer stretch of water separating Denmark and Sweden, there is a completely unique bridge that gradually turns into a tunnel. The one-of-a-kind Øresund Bridge-Tunnel allows you to cover this distance much faster than on previously plying ferries, and thanks to its special design, it solves several problems that would arise after the construction of a conventional bridge.

The bridge is a gigantic structure on which a four-lane highway and a railway are located on two levels.

This unusual design was chosen so as not to create obstacles for aircraft landing at the nearby Copenhagen Airport and to provide free passage for ships.

The Magdeburg Bridge in Germany is a unique structure that serves not for cars and trains, but for barges, ships and pedestrians. This is the largest water bridge in Europe. It is of great practical importance for German inland navigation. The bridge provided unhindered communication between the inner Berlin port and industrial facilities on the Rhine. The Magdeburg Bridge passes over the Elbe and connects the country's two most important waterways - the Central German Canal and the Elbe-Havel Canal, and thus relieves ships of the need to make a long and sometimes dangerous journey along the river.

The construction of the bridge was planned at the beginning of the 20th century. By 1938, the first stage of the project was implemented. However, then the Second World War began, and a long break in work followed. They resumed only in 1997 and lasted for six years. In October 2003, the bridge was opened with the launch of the first barges across it.

The length of the Magdeburg Bridge is 918 meters, of which 228 are over water and 690 are over land. Now barge captains can transport up to 1,350 metric tons of cargo along a deep-sea channel (over 4 m) 34 meters wide.

Enormous amounts of money were spent on the implementation of this grandiose engineering concept - over half a billion euros. But the bridge is worth it! Anyone can walk along it and take a close look at this amazing structure. The bridge is open to tourists and has pedestrian and bicycle paths, parking and even a small museum where you can learn about the history of its construction.

In 2012, the world's first and only rotating circular bridge for pedestrians and cyclists was opened in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. The bridge is supported by a single 70-meter support, which stands in the middle of the bridge and 24 ropes extend from the support to the bridge. The bridge rotates thanks to a motor installed on the bridge. This unique bridge was named Hovenring; it has become a real landmark of Holland.

When entering the city, the bridge catches the eye of travelers, especially in the evening, all 24 ropes are illuminated and the result is a beautiful light show. Some problems arose during the construction of the bridge - it was built in 2011 and vibrated very strongly throughout the year, and for safety reasons it was closed, after eliminating the shortcomings it was reopened in 2012.

Interesting facts about architectural structures from around the world that you didn't know.

1. The ancient Incas considered bridges to be sacred structures. Anyone who damaged the bridge was sentenced to death. The rope bridges spanning vast distances over deep gorges make a very impressive impression. They were made from herbs woven together. The thickness of such a “cable” was approximately the size of a human arm. Their length reached fifty meters and were distinguished by significant strength. Currently, one such bridge has been preserved.

2. The bridge, built in Lima, Peru around 1610, is famous for the fact that bird eggs were used to hold the stones together. There is information that it took about 10 thousand eggs to build the bridge. This building still stands today.

3. Trajan's Column, erected in 113 AD in honor of the victory of the Roman Emperor Trajan against the Dacian tribes. A continuous stone ribbon 218 meters long bends around the column's trunk 23 times.
It depicts more than 2,500 people, hundreds of boats, horses, many different vehicles and various weapons. The height of the column is 38 meters. It is hollow inside and has a spiral staircase. made of gilded bronze

4. More than 10 million bricks were used in the construction of the Empire State Building.

5. Japanese farmers, after harvesting the rice and threshing it, mixed the remains with it and made bricks from it to build houses. Such houses are known in Japan as "rice skin houses".

6. Many houses in rural Nepal are made from cow dung mixed with mud, sand and clay.

7. Escorial, a famous palace in the suburbs of Madrid, built in the form of a lattice. This was done because St. Lawrence, in whose honor this palace was built, suffered martyrdom: he was roasted on a grill.

8. The base of the Cheops pyramid in Egypt can cover ten football fields. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, 400 thousand people built this pyramid for twenty years.

9. In the middle of the 16th century, the informal ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, forbade ordinary people from having weapons. All the swords were collected and melted down. More than 50 thousand artisans created a statue of Buddha from this metal. It took six years. Ten years after its construction, it was destroyed by an earthquake. Currently, the largest Buddha sculpture is a 120-meter statue 50 km away. from Tokyo.
10. John Hancock Tower in Boston.

Damn tower. No one is bothered by the fact that a month after construction, the huge anti-glare glass that covered the windows began to burst and crumble. And those that did not fall out also behaved strangely: they made some sounds, burst, crackled. Eventually the company had to replace all the windows. Subsequently, wind tunnel studies showed that the designers' miscalculations were to blame. Under the influence of the wind, the tower seemed to “twist”, and the windows, of course, could not withstand the load. The owners had to invest a lot more money to bring this project to fruition.

The construction of a new society could not but affect the culture of the country in general and architecture in particular. Soviet architecture went through several stages of development, it knew its ups and downs, but in any case it became a definite event in world architecture. In the USSR there were several architects of the highest level, and today in the open spaces you can see several masterpieces of world scale. Let's talk about how the styles of Soviet architecture took shape and how it developed.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the new government of the country actively began to change all spheres of life. For some time, no one cared about architecture, but very soon it became clear that it, too, should perform an ideological function, like all other art. In the 20s, architects were not directly tasked with creating a new space, but the creators themselves keenly felt that the time had come for new forms and began to search for the expression of ideas of change. But later Soviet architecture was called upon to serve the ideas of socialism. All art in the USSR had to prove the only correct path of development - socialist. This determined the main features of Soviet architecture, which was always supposed to be ideological first and beautiful last. If at first the creators still managed to combine utility, idea and beauty, then gradually aesthetics gave way to utilitarianism, and this led to a decline in the potential of great architecture.

Historical sketch

The development of Soviet architecture went through several stages. The origin of this phenomenon is associated with the period of the 20s and early 30s, when there was an active search for new forms and classical techniques of architecture were rethought. At this time, two main avant-garde trends in Soviet architecture were emerging: constructivism and rationalism. At the end of the 30s, it became clear that the avant-garde was not on the same path with ideological Soviet culture. A new architecture begins to take shape, the purpose of which is to glorify the greatness and achievements of the socialist idea. The implementation of the ideas of this period was prevented by the Second World War, after which a new period in architecture began. It is associated not only with the restoration of destroyed cities, but also with the creation of a new space that would support a person’s sense of pride in his country. It is on this ideological basis that his craving for scale is formed. The beginning of the 60s exacerbated the problem of residential architecture. People lived in inhumane conditions, and this could no longer be attributed to post-war reconstruction. It is necessary to solve the problem of building mass housing. This problem was solved by maximizing the cost of projects. This turned into a tragedy for Soviet architecture. which chose not the best path of development and followed the French in their functional standard construction.

All creative attempts by architects were considered redundant and harmful. What made creators engage in “paper architecture,” that is, create projects without hope of implementation. In the 80s, Soviet architects were acutely aware of the impending crisis. At this time, a typical, faceless project dominates. Architecture turns from art into simple drawing skill. It began to emerge from this crisis very slowly only towards the end of the 90s, but this is already the post-Soviet period.

At the end of the Civil War, the question arose about the restoration of Moscow. By this time, two new directions had emerged in the country's architecture: constructivism and rationalism. They were created which were formed within the framework of Russian and European traditions, but saw the need to create a new architecture that would meet new realities. At that time, the creators were fascinated by the idea of ​​​​creating a new society and forming a new, harmonious person.

Constructivists led by the Vesnin brothers, Konstantin Melnikov, and Moisei Ginzburg believed that the composition of a building should correspond to its function. They abandoned historical continuity and gave the main role to simple structures with a minimum of decor. Thanks to them, the architecture of the Soviet avant-garde was enriched with such buildings as the round house of K. Melnikov in Moscow, the building of the Izvestia newspaper, the ZIL Palace of Culture and many others. The direction was very favorably received by architects and its branches appeared in Leningrad, Kharkov, Gorky, Sverdlovsk. In many cities of the former USSR, today you can admire constructivist buildings.

The second avant-garde direction, rationalism, led by N. Ladovsky and V. Krinsky, received less implementation than constructivism. They saw the main thing in their work as taking into account the psychology of human perception of a building. In the early 30s, the avant-garde was recognized as ideologically alien to Soviet art and quickly ceased to exist. Later, rationalism was “rehabilitated” and its ideas were actively used in architecture in the 60s.

Architecture of the 30-40s

In the mid-30s, Soviet architecture entered a new period. The new government is facing the need for massive reconstruction of residential buildings and the construction of new types of structures, for example, a site for holding an agricultural exhibition. Traditional techniques and methods come to the fore. The traditionalists are led by an excellent architect of the old school, neoclassicist I. Zholtovsky. Retrospective in his views, he returns to Russian practice the love of columns, pilasters, arches, etc. During this period, the influence of constructivism was still strong, but the bias towards the classics became more and more obvious. Before the outbreak of World War II, the country, especially Moscow, experienced a construction boom. The VDNKh complex, the State Library named after. Lenin, several Moscow metro stations are being built. The ensemble of Dzerzhinsky Square is being built in Kharkov. The Government House appears in Yerevan. New cities appear on the map of the USSR, the plans of which embody the ideas of new architecture. These are Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Magnitogorsk, Khabarovsk. Before the war, about 170 million square meters were built in the country. m of housing. A new, imperial style of the USSR is gradually taking shape.

Stalin Empire style

After World War II, the history of Soviet architecture entered a new stage. It took a lot of resources to restore the destroyed settlements. In the mid-40s, the second “great style” in architecture after constructivism took shape in the USSR - the Stalinist Empire style. It combined several directions: classicism, baroque, art deco, empire style. He was characterized by scope, pomp and majesty. Buildings in this style were intended to demonstrate victory and the scale of Soviet achievements. Moscow's high-rise buildings have become the symbol of this style: Moscow State University, the Ukraine Hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and others. Stalin's Empire style became the dominant style for 150 years and changed the face of the country. Stalinist architecture appeared in almost all cities of the country.

Mass residential architecture

In the post-war period, the housing problem became acute. But in the 50s, the management could not solve it, since it was necessary to restore the production infrastructure. But in the 60s it was no longer possible to postpone solving this problem. Just at this time, the end of the Stalinist era came and N. Khrushchev called for reducing the cost of residential construction as much as possible. He also initiated the fight against “artistic excesses”; it was recommended to take the quarters of French functionalism as a model. This is how the famous Cheryomushki appeared as an example of a new living environment. The block had to have all social infrastructure facilities, and the buildings had to provide a minimum area for each resident.

Architecture of the 60-80s

Since the late 60s, mass production of standard housing began. In all cities and towns of the USSR, houses made of enlarged concrete parts are appearing. Construction is proceeding quickly, people are getting apartments. But it is difficult to apply the word “architecture” to this development, since the buildings were absolutely faceless and identical. So the architecture of a Soviet district according to a standard design in any city was like two peas in a pod similar to other populated areas. This is precisely what film director E. Ryazanov laughed at in the film “The Irony of Fate.” Mass construction and the fight against architectural excesses led to the fact that by the 80s the phenomenon of Soviet architecture had become nothing. Of course, there were individual creators and buildings worthy of attention, but overall architecture was in a deep crisis. It is interesting that living architectural creativity at that time moved from capitals to provinces and union republics.

"Paper" architecture

In the 80s, when the official architecture of the Soviet period was plunged into crisis, this unusual phenomenon appeared. Young architects at that time could not count not only on the implementation of their ideas, but even on their recognition. Therefore, they created projects on paper, often sent them to various foreign competitions and won prizes. A whole generation of good architects is emerging in this area. The founders of the movement are A. Brodsky, I. Utkin, M. Belov, Yu. Avvakumov. The architects developed their own style of presenting ideas. Since they were confident that the projects would not be implemented, they focused on the visual presentation of the concept. Basically, these architects were inspired by the ideas of antiquity, although they often created futuristic projects.

The best architects of the USSR

Soviet architecture in the first half of its history developed thanks to the creativity of architects who studied and were formed back in imperial times. After this generation has passed, there is a short period of calm. But soon a new galaxy of architects is emerging, bringing new ideas and new tasks. Experts include K. Melnikov, V. Tatlin, and A. Shchusev among the best architects of the USSR. These constructivists constitute the real pride of our country in world architecture. Also among the best in Russian architecture are N. Ladovsky, I. Rerberg, the Vesnin brothers, A. Krasovsky. A great contribution to the formation of the image of many Soviet cities was made by I.V. Zholtovsky, V.N. Semenov, N. Dokuchaev, B. Iofan, V. Krinsky. During Soviet times, architects were formed who had the opportunity to transform the post-Soviet space after perestroika. Among them it is worth mentioning I. Utkin, A. Brodsky, Yu. Grigoryan.

Architecture is full of interesting objects and facts. Thus, the round house of K. Melnikov is one of the best monuments of constructivism in the world. The outstanding world architect Le Corbusier came to Moscow three times to be inspired by new ideas. In the 30s, the largest project of Soviet architecture was created - the Palace of the Soviets, the height of which was supposed to be about 400 m, 100 floors. To implement it, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was blown up, but the plan was not realized.