Visionary architecture?

[evilC]

This was highlighted on this week's Flavourpill and I thought some here might find it of interest.

Iakov Chernikov - visionary architect.

Iakov Chernikov International Foundation website.

Scroll down on that main page for links to pages dedicated to his prints, such as those below - one of the 'Palaces of Communism' series.

-

[Incandenza]

Visionary architecture?

A friend in grad school told me about some initial for the Olympiastadion before it was built for the 1936 Olympics. Some of the plans were for a stadium to seat 200,000 people--it would have been absolutely massive. Anyone know anything about that?

[WOM]

Visionary architecture?

Hitler had Speer do up plans for some utterly massive - and truth be told, stunning - buildings for the capital of the Third Reich, Germania. They're mentioned as part of the (realized) narrative in Fatherland, by Robert Harris. The giant stadium (as opposed to Giants Stadium) sounds like it would have fit nicely with the overall plan.

[Ginger Yellow]

Visionary architecture?

There was some really nutty architecture around in the early Stalin years.

This is the (thankfully) never built Palace of the Soviets:

[WOM]

Visionary architecture?

Here's a model of the proposed Great Hall, with the Brandenburg Gate for comparison. Apparently, when full of enthusiastic Germans, the dome would have had its own weather system.

[Ginger Yellow]

Visionary architecture?

On the other hand, it's a shame that Tatlin's tower was never built:

[Mitch]

Visionary architecture?

The Stalin monument looks really similar to the crazy parliament building in Bucharest. I wonder if there was any connection between the architects?

[ursus arctos]

Visionary architecture?

They are about 40 years apart. Like many recent despots, Ceaucescu was just into grandiose monstrosities.

For those interested in French visionaries, this book on Boulee, Ledoux and Lequeu is quite good.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Visionary architecture?

I wonder if there was any connection between the architects?

Eastern Bloc training, endless bureaucracy, egomaniacal clients with edifice complexes...

[Ginger Yellow]

Visionary architecture?

Possibly, but an awful lot of Stalinist architecture was done in that style. See, for instance, the Hotel Ukraina:



Or Moscow State University:

[ursus arctos]

Visionary architecture?

Those are two of the "Seven Stalinist Sisters" in Moscow.

There's also a very similar one in Warsaw.

The Wiki linked above makes an interesting suggestion that the Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan and the Royal Liver Buildings may have been precursors to the Stalinist towers.

[Ginger Yellow]

Visionary architecture?

It's not a precursor, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building seems to nod in their direction:

[WOM]

Visionary architecture?

This building in the breakaway republic of Detroit looks like it could be from the same school.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Visionary architecture?

Great photo! ( I assume it is a photo?)

[Ginger Yellow]

Visionary architecture?

Those arches and pediments would look a bit out of place, I think, but certainly the rest of it looks very simlar.

[ursus arctos]

Visionary architecture?

That's a retouched photo of the (abandoned) Michigan Central Station.

The original GM Building in Detroit is an even better example, as it lacks the Beaux Arts flourishes that GY noted, which were thought more necessary for a "public" building:



A poignant photography essay on abandoned buildings (from over 10,000 homes to listed skyscrapers) in Detroit (including several more photos of the Michigan Central Station).

[George]

Visionary architecture?

The Lafayette building, also in Detroit, also abandoned.


The old GM building is apparently leased out by the State of Michigan. Would it be unfair to wonder what condition the place would be in now if they hadn't moved in (GM left in the mid-'90's)?

[Incandenza]

Visionary architecture?

Worn Old Motorbike wrote:

This building in the breakaway republic of Detroit looks like it could be from the same school.

When HDR goes wrong.

AdC--it's an example of a HDR (high dynamic range) photo, in which multiple exposures are combined to make a photo with a lot of intensity in lights and darks. That photo isn't actually all that bad--I was just being snarky--but there are some really absurd examples of HDR, where it might as well be a digitally created image because it's so far from reality. Usually the worst examples are photos taken from just one exposure, but which have been heavily processed to give a HDR "look."

[matt j]

Visionary architecture?

Some of these remind me of the IG Farben building in Frankfurt. (But that one's a little more dull.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Goethe_University_Frankfurt_Poelzig_Building.jpeg

[ursus arctos]

Visionary architecture?

We could see the IG Farben building out our back window when we lived in Frankfurt. I had the same sense (especially vis a vis the GM building, though the latter is significantly larger).

Downtown Detroit is a very weird place.

[Anton Gramscescu]

Visionary architecture?

What was the relationship between this dude and Vladimir Tatlin? Obviously, two constructivists working in Moscow during the revolution are bound to run into each other once in awhile. Were they colleagues, rivals, mentor/apprentice?

[matt j]

Visionary architecture?

We had our high school graduation party at the IG Farben building. (True.)

I also made gyros under its shadow, but that's a different story.

[ursus arctos]

Visionary architecture?

ursus minor went to kindergarten next door to [what I assume was] that high school (true).

Gramsci, Chernikov seems to have been St. Petersburg-based, whereas Tatlin was in the heart of things in Moscow. They were essentially contemporaries, however, and must have known each other.

[WOM]

Visionary architecture?

I went to the IG Farben building wiki page to learn a bit more (true).

From there, I went wiki-surfing and discovered something called a paternoster elevator, which I've never heard of in my entire stinking existence.

I'll just assume that everyone here has not only heard of them, but rides them on an almost daily basis.

How has this been kept from me all this time?

[ursus arctos]

Visionary architecture?

They are the bomb.

They still exist in some older German office buildings.

I once took ursus minor in one in his stroller, which did not go over too well with his mother.