Melnikov: An Investigation Through Architectural Models recovers the built and unbuilt work of Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov through physical models, situating one of modernism's most singular and suppressed figures within his full historical complexity.
About This Book
Konstantin Melnikov (1890–1974) produced some of the most inventive architecture of the Soviet avant-garde, yet his refusal to conform after Stalin's cultural turn of 1932 condemned his work to decades of institutional silence. This publication reassembles that legacy through architectural models constructed by students of the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio under the direction of Pavel Kuznetsov. Both realised and unrealised projects are represented, with each model accompanied by photographs, sketches, and project descriptions. An essay by Kuznetsov places Melnikov within his historical and political context — essential reading for anyone engaged with early twentieth-century modernism, Soviet architecture, or the relationship between ideology and built form.
Key Features
- 160 pages of architectural models, photographs, sketches, and project descriptions documenting Melnikov's built and unbuilt works
- Edited by Pavel Kuznetsov, Marianne Burkhalter, and Christian Sumi; models created by students of the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio under Pavel Kuznetsov's direction
- Published by Lars Müller Publishers
What You'll Discover
- How physical model-making serves as an investigative tool for reconstructing and reinterpreting an architect's body of work across built and unbuilt projects
- The political conditions of Stalinist cultural policy that erased Melnikov from mainstream architectural discourse for several decades after 1932
- The formal and spatial inventiveness that made Melnikov's realised projects icons of Soviet-era modernism, examined at the scale of the model
- The historical rehabilitation of Melnikov in the years before his death in 1974, and what his rediscovery reveals about architectural historiography and cultural memory
About the Author
Pavel Kuznetsov directed the creation of the architectural models presented in this publication, working with students at the Accademia di architettura di Mendrisio. He also contributes the book's contextual essay, which situates Melnikov within the broader currents of Soviet architectural history.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 160
- Dimensions: 16.5 x 24 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783037788035
- Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects, architectural historians, and students with an interest in the Soviet avant-garde, early modernism, or the use of physical modelling as a critical research method.