The famous Russian and Soviet architect Ginzburg was born in Minsk in 1892. His father was an architect. Perhaps this influenced the fact that the boy from early childhood was fond of painting, drawing, and besides, he composed wonderful stories. In the commercial school, where he was sent to study, the future architect Ginzburg illustrated the school magazine and willingly painted scenery for amateur performances. After successfully graduating from college, he continued his studies in Europe.
Paris, Milan, Moscow
Began to study the basics of the profession architect Ginzburg in Paris, at the Academy of Fine Arts, and after some time moved to Toulouse to study at a well-known and prosperous architectural school at that time. But he did not stay there long. Feeling fully prepared to receive an even higher education, the young architect Ginzburg went to Milan, where he studied in the class of the professor of the Academy of Arts, Gaetano Moretti. This master is known fornumerous Italian attractions. He designed, for example, the facade of the Church of St. Rakka in Milan, restored the collapsed bell tower of the Venetian Cathedral of St. Mark. It was under the guidance of this remarkable master that the wonderful Soviet architect Moisei Ginzburg learned the basics of the profession.
Moretti was a staunch supporter of the classics, but did not prevent his student from getting carried away with European modernity. Moreover, at the end of his studies, the architect Moses Ginzburg was greatly impressed by the work of the American innovator in architecture, Frank Wright. Ginzburg returned to Moscow in 1914 with a Milan diploma. He felt that the baggage of his knowledge was not so small, but he needed to learn more. Moses Ginzburg replenished his knowledge all his life and was never satisfied with their volume. He filled the gap in technical terms at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, which was evacuated in Moscow due to the First World War.
New and old
In 1917, Moses Ginzburg developed a project for a building in Evpatoria. For this he had to live for four years in the Crimea. It was there that he survived the entire breakdown of the existing system and the Civil War. When the situation calmed down, he headed the department that was engaged in the protection of architectural monuments, enthusiastically studied the traditions of the Crimean Tatar architecture. The scientific work "Tatar art in the Crimea" written on this topic is still relevant.
Moses Ginzburg always succeeded in his work, including writing. This man loved to work and knew how to do it. Ohis productivity was legendary. His numerous articles and books are distinguished by a superbly thought-out structure, impeccable and very beautiful style. He wrote not for individual architects, but for the general public - he presented the criteria of any novelty and complexity in an accessible way. Veteran professionals also had the opportunity to learn a lot from his books.
For example, in 1923 his highly sensational book "Rhythm in Architecture" was published, and in 1924 another monograph about the profession "Style and Epoch" was published. Even then, in the lines of his first books, the author defended new approaches in the design and construction of buildings. In a young country, constructivism began to actively develop. Moses Ginzburg propagated this method, being a teacher at Moscow Higher Technical School and VKhUTEMAS since 1921.
The number of supporters of constructivism grew. Already by that time, views on the relationship between the old and the new in architecture had already formed. The triumph of technological progress and a completely different way of life could not but affect the environment, changing it almost beyond recognition. Defending constructivism, Moses Ginzburg called the old architectural forms of the national style decorative. He argued that their resurrection made no sense.
Innovative Team
In the early twenties, Moses Yakovlevich Ginzburg worked in the editorial office of the magazine "Architecture", where he managed to gather a team of like-minded architects with innovative views. They willingly rallied in the fight against the eclecticism that prevailed in those days. The year 1925 is marked by the creation of the OCA(Associations of Contemporary Architects), where Alexander Vesnin and Moses Ginzburg were leaders in ideology.
The architects' designs were surprising, and some old-schoolers were even amazed. In the journal Modern Architecture (begun in 1926), almost all publications extolled the functionality of thinking, which is characteristic of constructivism, and debunked eclecticism.
For the formation of constructivism had to literally fight. The architect Ginzburg said about Moscow that there are too many excesses in its appearance, and every detail must meet not aesthetic requirements, but practical ones. Buildings in the style of constructivism were assembled from several volumes, the mathematical approach dominated here.
If the functionality is observed and everything is taken into account correctly, the external form will certainly be beautiful, as the representatives of the avant-garde believed. This was confirmed by the project put forward for the competition in 1923 - the Palace of Labor, which was created by the architect M. Ginzburg (in collaboration with A. Grinberg). Unfortunately, the project was not implemented, but experts are still keenly interested in it today: the round volume of the large hall, the semicircular volume of the small hall, rectangular buildings, towers, porticos - all this was decided in monumental, heavy forms. More details about this work will be discussed below.
House of Narkomfin
Inside the building, each function occupies a certain place - this is the main difference between the style of Moses Ginzburg, whose biography is presented in our article. It also traces the traditions received ininheritance from parents, and new aspects based on the impressions of being in Italy. His ideas received their logical continuation: the first attempts appeared to socialize the entire life of a person of a new formation (Soviet citizen) within the framework of a built building. So, in 1930, the house of Narkomfin appeared on Novinsky Boulevard (this is the People's Commissariat for Finance of the USSR). Ginzburg was looking for new forms of building design. In 1926, a residential building on Malaya Bronnaya was built according to his design, and in 1928 construction began on the Narkomfin building. This building entered the history of domestic architecture and became a monument of the era.
It turned out to be something between a commune house and an ordinary multi-apartment project, even the apartments in it were called cells. Residents were supposed to use common premises for domestic needs, and cultural - outside the apartment, for which, according to the plan of the architects, a common communal building was provided, where there were a nursery, a library, a dining room, and a gym. All this was connected to the living quarters by a covered walkway.
For the design of the Narkomfin House, Ignatius Milinis and Moses Ginzburg chose the style of architecture according to the five starting points of modern architecture from the pioneer of modernism Le Corbusier. The supports freed the facade from the load, because they were moved inside the house. Therefore, the entire residential building, as if hovering above the ground. A garden was laid out on the terraced roof, the windows girdling the building like ribbons. Already in those days, the architect Moses Ginzburg used free planning in his projects. Thanks to this, in the Narkomfin building, each apartmentlocated on several tiers without intermediate floors.
The architects went even further: even standard furniture was specially designed, and the color scheme of ceilings and walls was made unified. Warm and cold shades were used: yellow, ocher, gray, blue. It is a great success that such houses have been preserved in Moscow. The architect Ginzburg, thanks to his talent, has become a modern classic. Subsequently, the openings between the columns were laid, because the building was rapidly decaying. At the moment, the famous house is being restored. Some other buildings have been preserved in the same style. Moses Ginzburg designed similar structures with passages in Yekaterinburg (home of the Uraloblsovnarkhoz) and in Moscow (dormitory in the Rostokino area).
Vanguard fades into the shadows
In 1932, literary and artistic organizations were abolished by a special resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Therefore, architectural associations were liquidated. Instead, they organized the Union of Architects, which promoted the policy of developing the legacy of the past. It took literally a few years for the style requirements in architecture to change radically. However, the struggle against eclecticism was not in vain. Projects created in those years are proof of this.
Ginzburg remained on the positions of constructivism, accepting the architectural culture of the past years only as a way to find inspiration for a new artistic image. During these years he wrote many articles in which he argued that traditions almost alwaysdue to technical capabilities, and now architects are much better armed. Therefore, in the era of reinforced concrete, it is not very reasonable to rely on the criteria of antiquity.
In 1933, the brothers Victor and Alexander Vesnin, together with Moses Ginzburg, developed a project for a public building in Dnepropetrovsk - the House of Soviet Organizations. The project had elements of constructivism, but other features also appeared in it - a much more complex and effective three-dimensional spatial composition, clearly contrary to Ginzburg's ideas of the twenties. In 1936, this work took part in the competition for projects of the Soviet pavilion for the World Exhibition in Paris, the same one where in 1937 all foreigners were surprised not by Ginzburg, but by Boris Iofan, who won the competition. Mukhina's sculpture "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" crowned the pavilion.
Palace of Labor
Soviet architects have always paid much attention to the construction of public buildings, filling them with new social meaning. The matter was unknown, without any clear differentiation according to their purpose. Therefore, often the search for new forms was carried out in the process of creating a project, when ideas arose regarding the inclusion of previously unused functions in these buildings, because the needs of the public life of the people have changed dramatically. These were entire factories where trade union, party, cultural, educational, Soviet public organizations functioned.
Such searches were not only successful at the first stage, they gave descendants a differentiated approach todevelopment of multidisciplinary knowledge. The Palace of Labor is just such a structure, an example of a complex type of public building. The project competition was held in Moscow. It was declared by the Moscow City Council in 1922. The site has been splendid. Subsequently, the Moskva Hotel was built there.
House of textiles
The recovery period in the country was coming to an end, industrial construction began, international trade relations were established. All this led to the creation of numerous administrative (office) buildings for industrial and commercial organizations. They had to be not only comfortable, but also impressive in order to adequately represent the country.
As many as three such structures were designed by Ginzburg during this period. The House of Textiles is the first project created in 1925 for the All-Union Textile Syndicate. This organization announced a competition for the design of the building in Zaryadye. The program of the competition was quite complicated, the architects had almost no freedom of action: ten floors with the exact location of institutions, only functionality in its purest form. Ginzburg received the third prize in the competition, which included forty projects. Many architects consider this work to be the best in terms of functionality, composition, and preservation of spatial volume.
The solution is very compact, clear software requirements are exactly met. The premises for offices are highlighted by horizontal windows, the reinforced concrete frame clearly reflects the structure of the building - constructivism in its purest form. Next twofloors - hotel. Here the glazing is decided differently. It is smaller, but the configuration becomes more complicated due to rhythmically arranged ledges and terraces. On the tenth floor - a fully glazed restaurant, made in the form of a pavilion with a terrace. In the basement, it was planned to equip a garage, a wardrobe and a department store. Other basement floors were reserved for warehouses.
Houses of Rusgertorg and Orgamal
The second in a series designed by Ginzburg was the House of Rusgertorg designed for the Moscow office of the Russian-German joint-stock company. Its location was supposed to be on the "red" line - Tverskaya Street. The project was completed in 1926 right after the textile workers' building, so there is much in common in their external forms (except for office space).
In the same way, large areas were allocated for office premises, there were ribbons of windows with similar horizontal lines, a cafe on the top floor with an open terrace. The courtyard was supposed to be a hotel building for living quarters, in which balconies are provided. From the side of Tverskaya, the entire first floor is filled with huge glass shop windows. There is also a cinema in one of the buildings.
The third project was completed in 1927 and was intended for the joint-stock company "Orgamal". This building included two main and completely heterogeneous parts - a huge exhibition hall where cars were to be exhibited. The entire first floor was allotted to him, and office space was located above. And for these two projects, the requirements were increased, the constructiveness of the solution was expected to be very high. Premisessuch a different focus is difficult to make comfortable for employees. However, Ginzburg did it well.
Expressive constructivism
Ginzburg used volume-spatial compositions in his projects of office buildings in an exceptionally interesting way. Here, his desire to make an expressive appearance becomes very noticeable. This endeavor of his was crowned with success. It is necessary to note the contrasts: the fully glazed bottom of the building and the blank walls of the floors above, the horizontal stripes of office windows and much more.
Each of the three projects considered has consistently become more complex in terms of composition. The composition for the "Orgamel" society turned out to be the most dynamic. Even the color on the facades is used very competently, increasing the expressiveness of the appearance of buildings. In addition, the skillful use of type on signs works to achieve the goal. In the architecture of the twenties of the last century, the projects of buildings for offices, made by Ginzburg, have rightfully become a real phenomenon. Now they are studied by experts and are considered modern classics.
In the mid-twenties, Ginzburg makes many other building projects with clearly defined programs. The Palaces of Labor in Dnepropetrovsk and Rostov-on-Don are just two great examples. Both buildings needed to be made multifunctional. They needed to provide for a theater, a sports complex, assembly halls, lecture halls, reading rooms and libraries, a dining room, a concert hall, premises for conducting circles andstudio work.
The architect created projects that meet all requirements, highlighting the main functional groups in the buildings: club, sports, theater (entertainment). He did not use a compact plan, but separate hulls that were connected to each other in one way or another. The result was a complex composition in terms of volume and space, but it did not lose its external simplicity and harmony. The buildings of Moses Ginzburg required new solutions. In the design of public buildings, such finds appeared that now serve as objects of study. No one in those days knew how to thoroughly think through the functional side of the structure, no one managed to combine with such naturalness what was previously divided into a single whole.
Prewar and wartime
In the thirties and forties, the demand for constructivism was less than in the twenties, but many of Ginzburg's ideas took root. For example, in 1930 he developed a project for a low-rise complex "Green City". This marked the beginning of the construction of prefabricated standard housing. Despite the triumphant pace of industrialization, Ginzburg's idea was adopted to separate industrial areas from residential areas with green areas, which is now widely used.
During the Great Patriotic War, the master was already seriously ill, but he worked very hard on plans for the restoration of destroyed cities. He met the victory by working on the projects of the buildings of the sanatoriums in Kislovodsk and in Oreanda on the southern coast of Crimea. They were built after the death of the architect, which cut him short.life in January 1946.
Many other great masters of this era could not bring to life as many projects as Moses Ginsburg did. There are a lot of public buildings among them: in Moscow - this is the building of Rusgertorg, the House of Textiles, the Palace of Labor, the Covered Market, in Makhachkala - the House of Soviets, sanatoriums in Kislovodsk and many other buildings in different cities of the former Soviet Union.
Legacy
Many projects of Moses Yakovlevich were not implemented. He left to his descendants a whole library - articles, books, projects of buildings worked out to the smallest detail. But his work lives on. Currently, the architectural workshop "Ginzburg Architects", opened in 1997, is successfully operating, where the head is the grandson of the master - Alexei Ginzburg, who inherited this wonderful talent from his father and grandfather.
He is a member of the Union of Architects of Russia, a professor of architecture at the International Academy and the Moscow Institute of Architecture, a laureate of many awards, repeatedly awarded high awards. The grandson of the famous architect considers modernist architecture to be a successive occupation. Not only the state supported the ideas of Moses Ginzburg. The successors of his work grew up in the family.
