This paper analyzes compositional strategies of Russian avant-garde architecture from the 1920s and 1930s through the study of the work of Ivan Leonidov （1902-1959）, one of the leading and most prolific architects o...This paper analyzes compositional strategies of Russian avant-garde architecture from the 1920s and 1930s through the study of the work of Ivan Leonidov （1902-1959）, one of the leading and most prolific architects of this movement. In this study, Leonidov＇s work is located within its predominant architectural context, and his work is interpreted not only as a reaction against the domineering principles of classicism, but as an evolution and selective continuation of key concepts directly translated from architectural academism. The issues of the use of pure forms--a radical stance at odds with the commonly accepted morphologies of that era--associated with the principles of displaced symmetry, or disorder, are closely looked at and evaluated against both their architectural and political values within the context of post-revolutionary Russia. It is argued that the characteristic of weightlessness in his large-scale planning proposals is revelatory of a particular desire to invade space with political presence, thus demanding to reconsider the relation between space and architectural objects. Parallels are also drawn from French Revolutionary architecture, and from the work of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in particular, whose search for purity and autonomy in architectural morphology preceded that of Soviet architecture. As Leonidov＇s legacy mainly consists of drawings of buildings that never got built, his influence can often be felt in the work of other architects which until today have drawn formal elements and compositional strategies from his relatively vast volume of un-built work.展开更多
文摘This paper analyzes compositional strategies of Russian avant-garde architecture from the 1920s and 1930s through the study of the work of Ivan Leonidov （1902-1959）, one of the leading and most prolific architects of this movement. In this study, Leonidov＇s work is located within its predominant architectural context, and his work is interpreted not only as a reaction against the domineering principles of classicism, but as an evolution and selective continuation of key concepts directly translated from architectural academism. The issues of the use of pure forms--a radical stance at odds with the commonly accepted morphologies of that era--associated with the principles of displaced symmetry, or disorder, are closely looked at and evaluated against both their architectural and political values within the context of post-revolutionary Russia. It is argued that the characteristic of weightlessness in his large-scale planning proposals is revelatory of a particular desire to invade space with political presence, thus demanding to reconsider the relation between space and architectural objects. Parallels are also drawn from French Revolutionary architecture, and from the work of Claude-Nicolas Ledoux in particular, whose search for purity and autonomy in architectural morphology preceded that of Soviet architecture. As Leonidov＇s legacy mainly consists of drawings of buildings that never got built, his influence can often be felt in the work of other architects which until today have drawn formal elements and compositional strategies from his relatively vast volume of un-built work.
