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Section 1. Architecture
https://doi.org/10.29013/AJT-21-3.4-3-7
Markovskyi Andrii, PhD architecture, Scientific Secretary of the Department of Plastic Arts Synthesis at National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, Knie, Ukraine E-mail: [email protected]
STREAMLINE OR CONSTRUCTIVISM: ARCHITECTURE OF KYIV IN THE LATE1920 s.
Abstract. The article presents the author's analysis of the legitimacy of the term "Streamline" introduced to Kyiv architecture in the late 1920 s and early 1930 s, introduced from the American architectural field ofthat time as opposed to the traditional term Constructivism for domestic architecture. The study focused on two key objects that are most often referred to as "Streamline" or "rounded style" in our popular science media space: the first Doctor's House and House of Institutions No. 2.
Keywords: architecture, avant-garde, Constructivism, streamline, new objectivity.
In the second decade of the XXI century, with term. As a researcher, we want to present our argu-
the growth of patriotic sentiments in society, there is a growing interest among the general population in the early twentieth century in the context of asserting national identity and national exclusivity in contrast to the paradigms that dominated the USSR in the previous era. Architecture has not escaped this trend also - following other post-Soviet countries, modern popular science opens the art of the first three decades of the last century to a wide range of respondents, showing domestic achievements and successes that were partly forgotten by the rapid rotation of art styles and political systems.
Curators of exhibitions and art projects, organizers of seminars and lectures, planning to attract the widest possible audience, often use eloquent names and comparisons, calling the domestic architecture of the period "modernism", "Bauhaus", and more recently "streamline" as opposed to the traditional
ments about the relevant terminology in this article.
Numerous publications and monographs by B. L. Yerofalov-Pylypchak [1; 2], M. B. Kalnytsky [3], O. G. Mokrousova and T. V. Skybytska [4], B. S. Cherkes [5], V. V. Chepelik [6] and others are devoted to the study of the Kyiv avant-garde of this period. Domestic architecture, as part of the all-Ukrainian and all-Soviet progress of the 1920 s, touched in their works Yu. S. Aseev, M. P. Bilinkin, O. V. Ryabushin, A. V. Ikonnikov, S. O. Khan-Ma-gomedov, D. S. Khmelnytsky and many others.
However, all these researchers called the domestic architectural style of the period precisely Constructivism, or, in a broader sense, the architecture of the Soviet avant-garde. Let's analyze the question in more detail.
After the end of the First World War in Europe, the Art Nouveau style faded in its many national and
international manifestations. The reasons for this were both technical-economic and socio-cultural. Art Nouveau style was an attempt to respond to new demands and challenges facing architecture against the background of galloping urbanization, industrial production of previously inaccessible to large-scale construction materials, new types of housing and public buildings and shifting social emphasis towards the dominance of middle class entrepreneurs and "business people", who saw in architectural objects not only a sacred demonstration of their own achievements, but also practical investments (which were to be primarily functional). The topic is widely covered in numerous works of the above-mentioned authors and our articles. In short, Art Nouveau in Europe did not cope with the tasks set, its approach, based on an eclectic combination of previous architectural experience with leading achievements, was not "radical" enough to meet the mentioned transformations. Art Nouveau was replaced by avant-garde architecture, which in the vast expanses of the USSR was embodied in a dual structure of "Constructivism/rationalism" (with early functionalism mainly in industrial buildings).
In the North American architectural and artistic region, the background of the 1920s was somewhat different: American architectural Art Nouveau (primarily Tiffany) continued its systematic development, gradually transforming into Art Deco, which became most popular in the United States in the late 1920s-1930s. In our opinion, this is due to slightly smaller sociopolitical transformations as a result of the war.
Decorative plastic, fusible, complex geometry lines, the widespread use of expensive finishing materials and sculptural decoration in America coexisted with avant-garde trends in architecture. Significant successes ofAmerican industry after the first World War brought the country to the leaders in the production of equipment, which, in the spirit of admiration for the achievements of aviation, was formed in the "aerodynamic" tradition. The relevant trends are reflected in the Streamline.
Streamline is the so-called "rounded style", which, being a component of modernism, manifested itself in the architecture of the 1920s and 1930s as a reflection of the aerodynamic outlines of aircraft, steamboats, cars, steam locomotives and other mechanized equipment. Among the most famous examples are the San Francisco Aquatic Park Bathhouse by William Mooser Jr. and William Mooser III (1936), the Los Angeles Coca-Cola factory by Robert Derrah (1936), and of course the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles by Phillip and Cliff Henderson (1935). Auditorium doesn't just resemble an ocean liner - in fact, its architecture is a direct reference with decorative non-functional elements that mimic the ship's chimneys. It is these decorative elements that put Streamline at the intersection between pure modernism and Art Deco. If Constructivism brings mechanization to architecture, then Streamline actually turns architecture into a monument of mechanization.
The Eastern European area also had its own peculiarities of development: after the October Revolution, with the establishment of communist power in the USSR, the ideological component becomes mandatory and often outstanding for all types of Arts and, first of all, for architecture, which political elites consider as the most influential manifestation of Monumental Propaganda (through permanence in time and dominance in the space of the human environment).
Accordingly, ideological messages are added to the theoretical concepts of the leading architects of the period, who argued the need for a radical revision of the architectural and artistic experience and satisfaction of new needs of society. The architecture of previous eras, especially Art Nouveau, is marked as "bourgeois", that is, class-hostile in contrast to the new "young" "revolutionary" "proletarian" avant-garde. That is, in the 1920s - first half ofthe 1930 s, any eclectic reminiscences and appeals to Art Nouveau were undesirable and, in fact, prohibited in its pure form.
In the domestic media field, two objects are most often called "streamline" in Kyiv: the first Doctor's
House by the architect P. F. Alyoshin and the House of Institutions No. 2 according to the drawings of the "Holovproekt", which was located on the site of the modern Central Department Store.
The first House of the Soviet Doctor, built in 1928-1930, is considered to be one of the most iconic avant-garde projects of Ukrainian architecture. The object is very well known both in Russian and World Architectural Science as an example of high, pure Constructivism. Function as the main concept that gives an impetus to the imaginative solution, a well-developed design scheme, zoning, advanced construction techniques (from those available in the USSR) - all this and much more allow us to speak about the architect's deep understanding of the fundamental foundations of the new style.
The building was erected on a complex plot: Stri-letska and Velyka Zhytomyrska streets converge here at an acute angle. "The lack of land has been turned into an additional convenience. Having unconventionally solved the central part of the structure, a small courtyard with a cour d'honneur was formed on the corner in front of the House" [7, P. 400].
Applying advanced for Soviet architecture of that time building techniques with the active use of glass, the architect uses the fundamental principles formed by Le Corbusier: free planning, dictated by the partial introduction of a progressive frame load-bearing scheme; facade of enclosing walls, which opens the way for the architect to work with the form; flat roof terrace with seating area. "For the first time in Kiev, a reinforced concrete roof was used in a residential building - a solarium and a place for children to play were equipped here" [7, P. 401]. In the spirit of high Constructivism, the building is multifunctional: "the House provided such premises as a club, library, laundry, hairdresser. <. > In 1937, at the first All-Union Congress of Soviet architects, in one of the reports, this building was noted as an example of residential architecture" [7, P. 401].
The four-story structure consists of two wings united by a central semicircular block forming the
aforementioned cour d'honneur. The plasticity of the facades is represented by a rhythmic change of balconies, loggias and bay windows. Two rotunda-rounded avant-corps flank the central part, which is crowned by a covered gallery with a flat roof on pillars. The horizontal rhythm of the structure was emphasized by the alternation of light plastered planes and areas with open masonry of dark red color.
This dichromism, as noted by a contemporary of construction, the architect M. I. Grechin in the article "Architectural design in brick", is a characteristic local feature [8]. The so-called "brick style" in its two-tone range acts as a purely Kyiv version (within the Ukrainian cultural area) of facades with red and yellow bricks, without the use of plaster. The technique, characteristic of pre-revolutionary architecture, was used in the works of many Kyiv architects in the interwar decades. Accordingly, we see how the domestic avant-garde reflects on a powerful historically formed background, transferring characteristic markers and techniques.
At the corner of Lenin St. (pre-revolutionary Fun-dukleevska, now B. Khmelnytsky) and Vorovsky (now Khreschatyk) in 1930 an administrative House of Institutions No. 2 construction has began according to the drawings of the "Holovproekt", designed under the influence of the famous Soviet architect Erich Mendelssohn [10], (who was the author of Power station of the textile factory "Red Flag" in Leningrad and a tender for the Palace of Soviets in Moscow).
The asymmetrical structure consisted of two blocks - a massive four-story on Vorovsky street, and a narrower seven-story building on Lenin Street (current Khmelnitsky street). The lower block was intended for shops, with a large outdoor terrace due to the deepening of the facade of the fourth floor from the street line. The top floor was supposed to contain a restaurant and was higher (possibly divided into two tiers inside). The upper block entered the "pass" on the last four floors above the lower block, ending in a semi-cylindrical end, and was a corridor-type building with offices. The lower block
was to be finished with an almost continuous plane of glass, broken by three narrow horizontal strips of articulation over the second, third and fourth floors. The upper block was evenly divided by strips of solid partitions and strips of windows, emphasized by the light tone of the gaps between them.
The building was often compared to the department store in Breslau (Wroclaw) in 1928, constructed by a well-known in the USSR German architect E. Mendelssohn. The buildings are really very similar in the scheme of two blocks and the implementation of a narrower block with a semi-cylindrical end. The designated department store refers to the architecture of the "new objectivity", which, in turn, had some touches to the Streamline, but without direct borrowing, because it was formed on the German background on the basis of the Werkbund (and, indirectly, the Dutch De style) in close cooperation with the Bauhaus.
However, the domestic project is not an exact copy of the designated department store, significantly differing in the layout, ratio of blocks and finishing.
The construction of the House of Institutions, which had already begun (already as the House of books), was suspended after the return of the capital from Kharkiv to Kyiv. The top party leadership, in the spirit of the tastes of Stalin's nomenclature, demanded the solution of key structures exclusively in the neoclassical movement. Researcher M. Kalnitsky notes that one of the authors of the primary avant-garde project, architect M. Kholostenko tried to adapt the structure already built in the main structures to new preferences, remaking the facade in a neoclassical way [3]. It should be noted that we are talking about a complete adaptation, which we cannot attribute even to post-constructivism. However, this option did not satisfy the city administration and it was decided to completely dismantle the structure and build in its place a fundamentally new project in the spirit of the Stalinist Empire style, which was implemented in the form of a modern Central Department Store building in 1939 (completed according to the preliminary plan along Khreshchatyk during the post-war reconstruction of the street).
Alyoshin P. The first house of a Soviet doctor. Kyiv. 1928-1930
Holovproyekt. The building of institutions № 2. Kyiv. 1930-1934
Due to a certain blurring of the boundaries of ever, as a researcher, we believe that this is method-
styles in general and Streamline in particular, some ologically incorrect, since Streamline in a narrow
popular science publications often refer to it as all sense was inspired by industrial design and the aero-
avant-garde objects with streamlined shapes. How- dynamics of mechanization, and these examples are
the result of geometric constructions and the search Although all these trends were related to the ar-
for forms in the spirit of "classical" Constructivism. chitecture of the avant-garde as a whole and we can
Streamline emerged and developed in close coop- observe some common features and identities, we
eration with Art Deco, while Soviet Constructivism are talking only about individual elements, but not
rejected the developments of Art Nouveau as ideo- about one style direction. In our opinion, the term
logically oppositional. The first Doctor's House, "Constructivism" is appropriate for these structures
meanwhile, reflected with the local Kyiv dichromic in Kiev architecture, due to the specific Ukrainian-
tradition of decoration, and the House of Institu- Soviet socio-political conditions for the formation
tions No. 2 with the German "New objectivity". of the corresponding objects.
References:
1. Erofaloff-Pilipchak B. Architecture of Soviet Kiev.- Kyiv: A+C, 2010.
2. Erofaloff-Pilipchak B. Kiev otherwhere. Kiev we've newer seen. Kiev that has gone. Kiev that could have been.- Kyiv: A+C, 2014.
3. Kalnitsky M. Parted with the former Central Department Store. URL: https://mik-kiev.livejournal. com/82488.html?page=1.
4. Mokrousova O. Skybytska T. Creativity of Pavel Fedotovich Alyoshin in the funds of the National Conservation area "Sophia of Kyiv". - Kyiv: 2019.
5. Cherkes B. National identity in the architecture of the city. Lviv Polytechnic,- Lviv, 2008.
6. Chepelyk V. Ukrainian architectural Art Noveau.- Kyiv: KNUBA, 2000.
7. Ped G., Reuters M. Projects of the architect Pavel Fedotovich Alyoshin of the 1920 s - 1930 s in the funds of National Conservation area "Sofia Kyivska" // Sofia's Readings.- Kyiv: ADEF Ukraine, 2013.-P. 399-409.
8. Grechina M. Architectural design in brick // Architecture of Soviet Ukraine. 1941.- No. 1.- P. 8-12.
9. Arkin D. Architecture and light // Architecture ofthe USSR. 1933. - No. 5. P. 16.Mendelsoh E. Complete Works of the Architect: Sketches, Designs, Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1992. (translation of Berlin, 1930 1st ed.)
