Preface

TO RESEARCH, SHARE, COMMUNICATE, STIMULATE A DIALOGUE, EXCHANGE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCES IN
ARCHITECTURE, URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING WITH HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES AND TO CREATE A FOLLOWING OF READERS
THAT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE PUBLICATION AND FORMULATE OPINIONS IN A VARIETY OF TOPICS IN THE FIELD




Antonio Sant'Elia

Antonio Sant'Elia was born in Como, Lombardy. A builder by training, he opened a design office in Milan in 1912 and became involved with the Futurist movement. Between 1912 and 1914, influenced by industrial cities of the United States and the Viennese architects Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, he began a series of design drawings for a futurist Città Nuova ("New City") that was conceived as symbolic of a new age.
Many of these drawings were displayed at the only exhibition of the Nuove Tendenze group (of which he was a member) exhibition in May/June 1914 at the "Famiglia Artistica" gallery. Today, some of these drawings are on permanent display at Como's art gallery (Pinacoteca). (They used to be in the Villa Olmo)
The manifesto Futurist Architecture was published in August 1914, supposedly by Sant'Elia, though this is subject to debate. In it the author stated that "the decorative value of Futurist architecture depends solely on the use and original arrangement of raw or bare or violently colored materials".[1] His vision was for a highly industrialised and mechanized city of the future, which he saw not as a mass of individual buildings but a vast, multi-level, interconnected and integrated urban conurbation designed around the "life" of the city. His extremely influential designs featured vast monolithic skyscraper buildings with terraces, bridges and aerial walkways that embodied the sheer excitement of modern architecture and technology. Even in this excitement for technology and modernity, in Sant'Elia's monumentalism, however, can be found elements of Art Nouveau architect Giuseppe Sommaruga.[2]
A nationalist as well as an irredentist, Sant'Elia joined the Italian army as Italy entered World War I in 1915. He was killed during the Battles of the Isonzo, near Monfalcone. Most of his designs were never built, but his futurist vision has influenced many architects, artists and designers.


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Leonidov

Leonidov
1929 – Design for the Columbus monument in Santo Domingo

Leonidov


Wikipedia article
Model of Lenin Institute, 1927

Ivan Ilich Léonidov (born Fe­bru­ary 9, 1902, Tver Oblast -1959, No­vem­ber 6, Moscow) was a Russian constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher.

Contents

Early life

Ivan Léo­ni­dov was rai­sed on an iso­la­ted farms­tead in the pro­vince of Tver Oblast. The son of a far­mer and woods­man, he went to work as a ca­sual la­bou­rer at the docks in Petrograd. When an icon pain­ter no­ti­ced Léonidov's drawing skills, he be­came his app­ren­tice.

Career

In 1919 Léo­ni­dov at­ten­ded the Svomas free art stu­dios in Tver. From 1921-27 he stu­died at the VKhUTEMAS in Moscow under the tu­te­lage of Alexander Vesnin at which point his at­ten­tion swit­ched from pain­ting to ar­chi­tec­ture. His un­e­xe­cu­ted di­ploma pro­ject in 1927 for the Lenin In­sti­tute and Li­brary, Moscow, brought him in­ter­na­tio­nal re­co­gni­tion. The scheme was pro­minently dis­played at the Ex­hi­bi­tion of Con­tem­porary Ar­chi­tec­ture, Moscow, and was pu­blis­hed in the OSA Group jour­nal So­v­re­men­naya ark­hi­tek­tura. He then went on to teach at the VKhUTEMAS bet­ween 1928-30. From 1931-33 he worked in the Gi­pro­gor and Moss­ovet and from 1934-41 he joi­ned the stu­dio of Moisei Ginzburg at the People's Com­mis­sa­riat for heavy in­dus­try.

Leonidov's only ma­te­ria­li­zed de­sign was the 1938 stair­case in Kislovodsk (1940 pho­to­graphs: overview, theater stairs, terrace stairs).

Works (Selected)

Commisariat for Heavy Industry in Red Square, 1934
  • 1926 – Design for Izvestia printworks in Moscow (VKhUTEMAS studio with Alexander Vesnin)
  • 1927 – Thesis (diploma) Lenin Institute and Library in Moscow (unexecuted)
  • 1928 – Competition entry for the building of the Centrosojuz in Moscow
  • 1928 – Club of the New Social Type. Variant B [1]
  • 1929 – Design for the Columbus monument in Santo Domingo
  • 1929–1930 – Competition entry for the House of Industry in Moscow
  • 1930 – Competition entry for the culture palace of the proletarian district in Moscow
  • 1930 – Competition entry for the socialist city Magnitogorsk (director/conductor of a group of students of the VChUTEIN)
  • 1934 – Competition entry for the Narkomtiazhprom building (The People's Commissariat for heavy industry in Moscow), Red Square, Moscow.
  • 1937–1938 – Outside staircase in the Ordzonikidze sanatorium in Kislovodsk
  • 1937–1941 – Pioneer palace in Kalinin (Tver)
  • 1950s – Sketch drafts for the »sun city« and the seat of the United Nations

References

  • Cooke, Catherine, (et al.) (1990). Architectural Drawings of the Russian Avant-Garde. The Museum of Modern Art. ISBN ISBN 0-87070-556-3.
  • Meriggi, Maurizio, (et al.) (2007). Una città possibile. Architetture di Ivan Leonidov 1926-1934. Electa. ISBN ISBN 88-370-5445-9.
  • De Magistris, Alessandro, (et al.) (2009). Ivan Leonidov 1902-1959. Electa.


This section is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0. It uses material from the Wikipedia article «Ivan Leonidov» (as at 10/03/2012). A list of authors

Futurist

Futurist