Today, April 18, on the International Day of Monuments and Historical Sites, a hasty dismantling of the modernist facades of the Health, Computing and Radioelectronics pavilions began at VDNKh - without preliminary discussion with architectural historians, although on April 9 this year the exhibition management Center promised specialists, members of the public and journalists that all plans for the reconstruction of the complex will be discussed with the "expert council". Now no one has warned the members of this council about the upcoming dismantling.
It can be assumed that the goal of the ongoing work is to return the complex to the state of 1954, since the facades of these pavilions were created in the late 1950s - 1960s in order to give the buildings of the Stalin era a modern - in the understanding of that time - look. However, modernist facades have since become heritage monuments themselves, and their barbaric destruction cannot be justified by anything.
We are publishing an article by the architectural historian Anna Bronovitskaya about the history of the creation of these objects
For the first time the article "From the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition to the Exhibition of Economic Achievements: the transformation of the exhibition ensemble in Ostankino in the late 1950s - 1960s." was published in the collection Aesthetics of the Thaw. New in architecture, art, culture”, published as a result of the conference of the same name edited by Olga Kazakova in 2013.
On August 1, 1954, the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition opened after a major reconstruction. In the same month, the Central Committee of the CPSU adopted a decree on the development of precast concrete production, and on December 20 of the same year, N. S. Khrushchev delivered a keynote speech that radically changed the concept of "what is good and what is bad" in Soviet architecture. A fabulous town shining with gold and mosaics with all its colonnades, domes and spiers, sculptures and reliefs, paintings and tiles, carved wooden carvings and other fruits of the imagination of architects and labor brought from all over the Union of Masters overnight turned from a triumphant testimony of the wealth and diversity of Soviet culture into utterly overloaded with "excesses" anachronism. When the development of the exhibition complex in Ostankino resumed in 1959, it happened in completely different cultural and political conditions. The pavilions built at VDNKh before the end of the 1960s not only embodied a new, modernist stage in the development of Soviet architecture, they were created in a direct dialogue with the West and were an important channel for introducing new aesthetics and building techniques into domestic practice. The alteration of the exhibition ensemble was by no means one of the priority tasks: the fundamental difference between Khrushchev's construction policy and Stalin's was the change in priorities from creating an image of the triumph of the Soviet system with the help of architecture to solving urgent problems, first of all, providing the population with housing. However, the course of foreign policy towards greater openness of the country, towards establishing a dialogue with the Western world meant that it would also be necessary to take care of updating the image of the USSR, and exhibition activities became one of the most important means for this. There is considerable literature on the importance of international exhibitions in US foreign policy during the Cold War. The elegant modern architecture of the pavilions and the seductive design of the goods exhibited in them were supposed to convince the population of the Eastern bloc of the preferability of the American way of life and the superiority of the capitalist economy, and to the Western allies, wary of the US domination on the world stage, to present a more humane, "harmless" image of this country. … The USSR, following the course of peaceful competition with the West in general and with America in particular, announced by Khrushchev, could not leave such a challenge unanswered.
The first exhibition facility built after the construction reform was the USSR pavilion at the 1958 World Exhibition in Brussels. The competition for this pavilion was held in 1956, that is, the project of architects Yu. I. Abramova, A. B. Boretsky, V. A. Dubova, A. T. Polyansky is one of the first, created taking into account the requirements of Khrushchev. The building was, of course, modern in terms of its constructive solution (engineer Yu. V. Ratskevich), which made it possible to free space from the supports, make the walls almost entirely glass and hang a light shade on the shrouds. At the same time, the volumetric-spatial composition of the pavilion was more than traditional: a parallelepiped raised onto a platform with a staircase leading to the entrance marked with a columnar portico. Soviet accounts of the exhibition, proudly reporting that the foreign press dubbed the USSR pavilion "Parthenon of aluminum and glass," apparently draws on a note in the EXPO edition of the UNESCO Courier, which refers to "a giant rectangular Parthenon, in the center of which the statue of Lenin will stand”is a rather accurate and not necessarily complimentary description. Domestic reviews also claim that the pavilion was recognized as the best at the exhibition, having received the Grand Prix for architecture, but when assessing this fact, it should be borne in mind that the entire USSR exposition was awarded 95 Grand Prix, and this, on the one hand, really testifies to success and on the other hand, the quantity itself somewhat reduces the weight of each individual "grand prix". In addition, in parallel with the Soviet one, the Austrian pavilion received the Grand Prix for architecture - a light modernist structure built according to the project of Karl Schwanzer. It is noteworthy that the influential architectural magazine Domus, which devoted two issues to a review of the most architecturally interesting exhibition pavilions, does not mention the USSR pavilion at all. Success, of course, was, but it was not caused by architecture and, moreover, not by the design of the exhibition, where, in the shadow of statues made in the best traditions of socialist realism and Deineka's picturesque panel "Forward to the Future", models of the latest aircraft and the Antarctic station were mixed with the products of folk masters. crafts, and the technical achievements of the USSR, including the first artificial Earth satellite, a life-size model of which was the main attraction, attracting 30 million visitors to our exhibition.
Just as the main intrigue of the 1937 World Exhibition was the confrontation between the pavilions of the USSR and Germany, in Brussels, the center of attention was the rivalry of the Soviet pavilion with the American one located directly opposite it. The USA Pavilion was a round building with transparent walls, free internal space, a roof suspended on shrouds with a round "oculus" in the middle, under which there was a decorative pool. A fashion show platform was set up in the center of the pool, connected by a spectacular catwalk to a circular mezzanine. Outside, in front of the main entrance, on the axis directed to the USSR pavilion, there was another, oval pool with fountains. In contrast to the Soviet exposition, overloaded with heterogeneous objects and information, the American exhibit was very loosely planned and relied on carefully selected objects and display stands, communicating information through graphic design rather than through text. Contemporary art also played an important role, including the large mobile by Alexander Calder installed in front of the entrance. The Soviet visitors were not impressed by art (mostly abstract), but architecture and design, as the following will show, were taken note of as a role model.
The success in Brussels prompted the Soviet leadership to offer the United States an exchange of national exhibitions - an agreement on this was signed in September 1958, and the exhibitions themselves were held in the summer of 1959. For the Soviet exhibition, the American side offered a ready-made exhibition space - the New York Colosseum, which opened in 1956 as a complex of inexpressive architecture, but impressive in size. In Moscow, there were simply no halls suitable for the American exposition, and during the negotiations it was decided to allow the Americans to build their pavilions in Sokolniki Park.
This fact turned out to be significant enough for the development of Soviet architecture during the thaw period: “imported” buildings appeared in Moscow, and domestic specialists and workers who helped the Americans in their construction could directly familiarize themselves with construction technologies. At the same time, local architects were instructed to complement the exhibition complex with no less modern buildings.
On a $ 142,000 US leased triangular piece of land, architect Welton Beckett designed an axial composition, the main elements of which were Buckminster Fuller's hemispherical dome, covered with golden anodized aluminum panels, and an arched main pavilion with glass walls and folded roof. In the memoirs of the general manager of the American exhibition, Harold McClellan, it is said about the constant inexplicable delays that slowed down the start of construction after all the fundamental issues had been resolved. This time was necessary for Moscow to have time to prepare and not to lose face in the mud both in front of the Americans and in front of Soviet visitors to the exhibition. Sokolniki Park was reconstructed and cleared of old, mainly pre-revolutionary buildings. While the Americans were erecting their pavilions from the imported finished elements, Soviet architects from the Mosproekt department of new technology under the leadership of B. Vilensky built a new main entrance (V. Zaltsman and I. Vinogradsky), a service and communications building, a fountain (the authors of both buildings are B. Topaz and L. Fishbein) between the entrance and the American dome and further in the park as many as nine cafes with a capacity of 500 to 200 people (I. Vinogradsky, A. Doktorovich, barbecue was designed by B. Topaz and L. Fishbein).
Comparison of the fountain in Sokolniki with the fountains of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition shows very clearly how the borrowed sample - a pool with fountains in front of the American pavilion in Brussels - is being transformed, approaching more familiar ideas of beauty. As in Brussels, the fountain has no sculptural or other decor; its bowl with flat, stone-faced sides is recessed, so that the surface of the water is level with the ground. The shape of the bowl, however, is not oval, but round, and the gushing jets create a centric composition with a clearly pronounced hierarchy, close to the VDNKh fountains, while among the Americans, equivalent vertical jets were evenly distributed over the surface of the pool.
The cafes (five round, two square and two rectangular in plan) became the first fully glass-walled buildings in the USSR. The experiment was greeted with enthusiasm: as the magazine Architecture and Construction of Moscow wrote, "Made with a light glass fence, almost imperceptible either inside or outside, these premises fully meet their purpose." At the same time, it turned out to be possible to neglect the fact that the transparent halls were almost entirely occupied by tables, and all economic and production functions had to be cut to a minimum and accommodated in very small in area and awkward in architecture annexes made of glass blocks. In the conditions of the park, fortunately, these outbuildings could be disguised in greenery, and the lack of space for storing food and preparing dishes was compensated for by the narrow specialization of food enterprises (pie, sausage, kebab, confectionery, dairy cafe, etc.). Nevertheless, it is obvious that aesthetic aspirations turned out to be more weighty in this case than practical considerations. Round cafes, which varied the model of the American pavilion in Brussels, even had an oculus in the center of the roof and a pool under it, which was also approved by the press, but the very first winter showed that reliable isolation of the premises from the elements is much more important than these spectacular elements, otherwise the next season is required serious renovation. Nevertheless, these transparent cafes, with their flat roofs, the far-reaching edges of which formed a canopy over the outdoor terrace, and flush-mounted lamps in the ceiling, were very effective and seemed to be the embodiment of modernity. During their construction, new design principles were worked out (the author of the designs of all buildings in Sokolniki in 1959 - engineer A. Halperin), construction techniques and technologies, new use of well-known materials. For example, for the sake of an important government order, the Soviet industry had to master the production of all-glass doors, which had not been produced before, but the high-quality plastic floor covering, which the architects insisted on, was never made. The lack of available modern materials is the fundamental difference between the position of Soviet architects from their counterparts in the West, where the development of architecture went hand in hand with the development of the building materials industry, and where large manufacturers could sometimes support bold architectural projects, seeing in them the best advertising of their goods - namely such was the relationship between Buckminster Fuller and Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Company, which implemented, in particular, the dome in Moscow. Glass-walled structures can only function successfully if there is a ventilation and air conditioning system. At the time of the exhibition in Sokolniki, there were no such systems in the Soviet Union, so the architects had to leave a gap for air between the walls and the ceiling, which, of course, excluded the operation of the premises in the cold season. After a couple of years, however, this problem was resolved, and characteristic "glass" began to appear on the streets of Soviet cities, containing not only cafes, but also shops, as well as hairdressing salons. The architects who worked in Sokolniki in 1959 will move on to designing larger glass structures: in 1963, in the same place, in Sokolniki, next to the preserved American pavilions, Igor Vinogradskiy will build a new exhibition pavilion, consisting of two buildings connected by a passage; starting in 1966, Vilensky, Vinogradsky, Doktorovich and Zaltsman will actively work at VDNKh.
During the exhibition in Sokolniki, one of the park's alleys was covered with a light vault, under which the VDNKh exposition was deployed at the stands. And a month with a little earlier than the American one, on June 16, 1959, the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR opened itself, formed as a result of the unification of agricultural, industrial and construction (on the Frunzenskaya Embankment) exhibitions. At first, the transformation of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition into VDNKh was expressed mainly in the fact that the existing pavilions received new expositions and interior design. However, in two cases more significant construction interventions were undertaken, and their nature prompts to consider the Circular Cinema Panorama and the Radio Electronics Pavilion in the context of Soviet-American relations. The most important visitor to VDNKh in the first summer of its work was to become US Vice President Richard Nixon, who came to Moscow to attend the opening of the American exhibition.
During a July 24 meeting in Sokolniki between Khrushchev and Nixon, known as the "kitchen debate," the Soviet leader said that American goods were not of interest to the Soviet people because they were "excesses" that were not really needed for life. But to Nixon's phrase that although the USSR is superior to the United States in some industries, such as space exploration, the Americans are leading in others and cited color television as an example, Khrushchev reacted differently: “No, we were ahead of you in this technique, and in this technology ahead of you. " So that Khrushchev could make such statements, the Kinopanorama and the Radioelectronics pavilion appeared at VDNKh, proving that the USSR does not lag behind the United States in the field of entertainment technologies.
On the early master plan of the exhibition complex in Sokolniki, developed by Welton Becket Architects, behind the fan-shaped main pavilion, another rather large circular volume, "Circorama", is indicated. It was intended for demonstration of films on a panoramic, 360º, screen according to the system patented in 1955 by Walt Disney. The circus theater was supposed to become one of the main attractions of the American exhibition, but in the end it went almost unnoticed. Partly because its circular films were overshadowed by Charles Eames' split-screen film A Look at the USA, which was shown in the dome pavilion. But the main thing is that the circus theater could not stand the competition with the unexpectedly appeared Soviet alternative, which far surpassed the prototype in the quality of the spectacle.
In the same months when the American exhibition was being prepared, on the personal instructions of Khrushchev, a group of scientists and engineers from the Research Film and Photo Institute under the leadership of Professor E. Goldovsky developed their own Soviet circular film projection system. The building of the cinema panorama itself, designed and built in just three months (architect N. Strigaleva, engineer G. Muratov), is architecturally a somewhat awkward attempt to master the language of modernity. The architect logically chose the circular shape of the plan: in the lower tier there is a round auditorium, where up to 300 people could stand to contemplate a film projected on 22 screens, the gallery surrounds the foyer, in the rear part interrupted by service rooms and a staircase, on the average - projection rooms, and upstairs there is a ventilation and other technical equipment. The facade is traditionally divided vertically into three parts, although their proportions are somewhat different from the classic ones. Above the low plinth, there are transparent walls made of double-glazed windows on a metal frame, covered from the outside with aluminum profiles. "To preserve the integrity of the architectural reception, the doors of the entrances and exits located in the outer glazing of the foyer are also made transparent - from tempered safety glass without straps," the author of an article in the journal Architecture and Construction of Moscow notes an unusual detail. In accordance with the current principle of "inverted" tectonics, the upper part of the walls is made deaf: the smoothness of the light brickwork is enlivened only by the groups of small ventilation holes located closer to the roof. The absence of plaster made it possible to return to the solution, which at one time caused a lot of troubles for the architects of the avant-garde: there is no cornice under the roof, and the intensity of the impact on the walls of precipitation flowing from the conical roof is moderated only by the gutters brought forward. The building was crowned with a "crown" of wavelike neon tubes with a repeating, also luminous, inscription "Circular cinema panorama"; unfortunately, this element, which greatly adorned the modest building, has not survived. In the interior, modern materials were combined with traditional ones: the walls of the foyer and hall under the screens were trimmed with plastic-coated chipboards, the seams between which were hidden by aluminum overlays on the seams, but the strip between the upper and lower rows of screens was upholstered in black velvet, which was perfect for camouflage projector lenses. Despite the haste of creation and the inevitable limited repertoire, the cinema panorama at VDNKh, slightly modified in 1965-1966, when 22 screens were replaced by 11, turned out to be very successful. It is still functioning - the only one of all the cinemas of this type built once in the USSR.
The Radio Electronics Pavilion was not rebuilt. In fact, this is a newly decorated (and even then partially) pavilion "Volga region" in 1954: a new facade was attached to the front of the existing building, a semicircular hall was attached to the back, and the interiors were reorganized due to light temporary structures. As in the case of the cinema panorama, the decision to organize the pavilion was made only in February 1959 - after it became known that an operating color television studio would be at the American exhibition. The reconstruction was planned to be continued next year, but in reality this did not happen, only a temporary semicircular hall was dismantled for viewing color television - Nixon was already shown that it was in the USSR, and it was too early to tease ordinary visitors: from a laboratory experiment to a real fact of life, color television will begin to transform in our country only in 1973. But the façade, created in 1959 and still preserved, is one of the brightest artistic expressions of the thaw period.
It is more than likely that the idea of revealing the facade with repeating elements of anodized aluminum appeared in response to the coating of the Fuller dome in Sokolniki, but the technology of working with aluminum surfaces was well known in the USSR, which was then one of the world leaders in aircraft construction. It remains for architects V. Goldstein and I. Shoshensky to take care of the artistic appearance of the facade, and they did it brilliantly. The new facade, carried by steel structures, hugs the old one, slightly going over the edges to create the impression of an attached new volume, although in reality the depth of the added spatial layer does not exceed a meter. This is enough to place exhibits in the original jagged glass showcases in the lower part, although in reality very expressive graphic sheets with stylized images of radio devices and waves propagated by them were dispensed with - these sheets were dismantled only in the fall of 2012. The lateral planes of the aluminum facade are designed as lancet folds dynamically directed upwards, and the front plane, which has the outlines of a rectangle strongly elongated horizontally, is covered with panels made of concave lenses inscribed in 110x110 cm squares - a shape that evokes associations with the control panel keyboard. The aluminum alloy sheet from which the facade is made is only 1 mm thick, but this was enough for the facade to withstand more than fifty years since its creation without loss. Perhaps, the colorless anodizing has faded - the first descriptions of the pavilion mention the effects of sky and clouds reflection on the relief surface. The inscription "Radio electronics and communications", asymmetrically placed on the facade, was luminous. Important elements of the architectural composition were also two large exhibits installed in the open air on the surface of the stylobate: the truss mast of the color television antenna (lost) and the parabolic mirror of the locator. Spectacular technical installations next to the pavilions will become widely used in the design of the renovated VDNKh in subsequent years: this find made it possible to do without archaic figurative sculpture and, in fact, replaced abstract works of art that played an important role in the solution of American exhibitions. This technique was played most effectively in 1969, when the Vostok rocket was installed in the place where the giant statue of Stalin towered at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in 1939.
The formula found during the creation of the Radioelectronics pavilion for a complete change of the architectural image at minimal cost (and with minimal damage to the converted pavilions - it cannot be ruled out that those who led the reconstruction,there was a second thought to leave the opportunity to return to the original appearance of the pavilions) was so successful that it was repeated several more times. In 1960, the neighboring pavilion "Computing Machinery", formerly "Azerbaijan" was transformed in a similar way (the authors of the reconstruction were architects I. L. Tsukerman, engineer A. M. Rudskiy), in 1967 - "Metallurgy", the former " Kazakhstan "(architects Kobetsky, Gordeeva, Vlasova, engineer Anisko) and" Standards ", formerly" Moldavian SSR "(the authors of the reconstruction were not installed, in 1995 the pavilion was returned to its original form with some losses and transferred to the Republic of Moldova).
When VDNKh was opened in 1959, an extremely large-scale plan for the reconstruction of the complex was announced. The territory was supposed to increase by another 129 hectares, and in the next two years it was planned to build five pavilions (industry and transport; construction industry; science; oil, chemical, gas industry; coal), three of which were to be gigantic - 60 thousand. sq. m. The contrast with the very insignificant work that was actually carried out at VDNKh during these years allows two options for interpreting these plans: either it was pure propaganda timed to coincide with the American show, or they assumed the use of the Ostankino complex as a venue for the 1967 World Exhibition. Until March 1962, when the USSR refused to hold the World Exhibition, the future of VDNKh remained unclear - the main projects were developed for the territories in Teply Stan and Zamoskvorechye. The very situation of abandoning an ambitious dream (apparently caused mainly by economic considerations - economic growth lagged significantly behind the overestimated indicators announced by NS Khrushchev at the XXI Congress of the CPSU) also did not favor the resumption of activities on the reconstruction of the national exhibition complex. A large pavilion for exhibitions was built in 1963 not at VDNKh, but in Sokolniki, behind the remaining American pavilions. However, further development of the exhibition town in Sokolniki was considered impossible, as it would cause too much damage to the park. Meanwhile, the importance of Ostankino in the geography of Moscow has increased thanks to the construction of a television tower and a television center on Koroleva Street - originally it was planned to erect them in Novye Cheryomushki, but calculations showed that at this place a tower over 500 meters high would pose a danger to aircraft landing at the airport Vnukovo. Even more, the status of Ostankino as a place associated with the technology of the future - and at the same time as a hub for the concentration of new architecture - was strengthened by the opening in 1964 at the turn from Prospekt Mira to Korolev Street of the Monument to the Conquerors of Space.
In 1963, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution "On restructuring the work of the VDNKh of the USSR", which assumed the transfer of the exhibition to year-round operation and the construction of a number of new large pavilions, including three in the central core of the exhibition, on Mechanization Square (later - Industry Square). The resignation of Khrushchev in October 1964 and the subsequent administrative upheavals slowed down the process again, so that the first new pavilion was built in 1966 to host the International Exhibition of Agricultural Machinery and Equipment - later it became the Chemical Industry Pavilion (No. 20, architect B. Vilensky, with the participation of A. Vershinin, designers I. Levites, N. Bulkin, M. Lyakhovsky, Z. Nazarov). The plan of the building is a square with sides 90x90 m, the height of the walls is 15 m. The clearness of the shape of the glass parallelepiped is disturbed only by the concrete stairs leading to the entrances. The prototype here is quite recognizable: these are the buildings of the Illinois Institute of Technology campus, including the famous Crown Hall, designed by Mies man der Rohe in 1956 - the former Bauhaus professor, who successfully continued his career in the United States, became in the USSR in the 1960s, along with Le Corbusier, one of the most cited architects.
Another pavilion was designed according to the same model for a new phase of construction at VDNKh, timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967. Pavilion "Consumer Goods" (No. 69, architects I. Vinogradsky, V. Zaltsman, V. Doktorovich, L. Marinovsky, designers M. Berklide, A. Belyaev, A. Levenshtein), has a plan in the form of a rectangle 230x60 m; due to the presence of a mezzanine floor, its total area is 15,000 sq. m. This is much less than the declared in 1959 60,000 square meters. m per pavilion, but still such a large volume, although elongated horizontally, significantly stands out in scale among the buildings of the exhibition. Like the pavilion of "Chemical Industry", located opposite it on the square of Industry (formerly Mechanization), it was built on the site of the previously demolished pavilions. If during the reconstruction of the Radioelectronics pavilion the question of how the new facade would fit into the existing ensemble was discussed, then the construction company of the second half of the 1960s was clearly conceived as the first step towards its complete restructuring.
The pavilion "Mechanization and electrification of agriculture" (No. 19, architects I. Vinogradsky, A. Rydaev, G. Astafiev, designers M. Berklide, A. Belyaev, O. Donskaya, V. Glazunovsky), also overlooking the Promyshlennost Square opposite the pavilion No. 69, square in plan and the same area as the Chemical Industry pavilion, has a much lower height and therefore is much less noticeable in the overall composition. The nondescriptness of the pavilion is explained by the fact that it is entirely assembled from ready-made elements. Its roof, whose rather significant profile hides a three-dimensional slab grating that does not require support in the interior space, has an external extension and rests on thin pillars at the edges.
The pavilion "Electrification of the USSR", also realized in 1967 on the Mechanization Square, has a more active and original look. It stands at its far end, at an angle to the adjacent Mechanization pavilion, which has been converted into Cosmos, but, fortunately, not rebuilt. During the reconstruction, only the foundations and part of the outer walls, completely absorbed by the new building, remained from the previous pavilion "Animal husbandry" - this approach is very different from the one used during the transformation of the "Volga region" into "Radioelectronics". Architect L. I. Braslavsky gave the upper part of the facade overlooking the square with a strong extension, propping up the resulting volume with a number of oblique supports. The glass is limited by the stained-glass window of the part pushed forward, while the side walls, in some places cut by standard small windows, on the contrary, are given an emphatically material character with the help of a plaster "coat" with an admixture of pebbles. In general, the structure betrays the author's passion for the late work of Le Corbusier.
One of the most interesting pavilions that appeared at VDNKh in the anniversary year 1967 is the Gas Industry Pavilion (No. 21, architects E. Antsuta, V. Kuznetsov). Like Electrification, it is a reconstruction of an existing pavilion. In this case, the absorbed pavilion "Potatoes and Vegetable Growing" (or "Beetroot", as it was called at the time of reconstruction) was a rotunda, and this, together with the curvilinear shape of the area enveloping a small circular area, suggested to the authors a solution characterized by increased plasticity. The bend of the massive canopy, passing over the entire glazed new facades and brought out to the left outside of it, evokes clear associations with the chapel in Ronshan. This is a completely deliberate borrowing, a kind of homage to Le Corbusier, whom, according to one of the authors of the pavilion, Elena Antsut, she idolized. The similarity is enhanced by the textured plaster, the execution of which has been given special attention. Initially white, now it has acquired a gray color, which somewhat distorts the image.
The pavilion "Floriculture and Gardening" (No. 29, architects IM Vinogradskiy, AM Rydaev, GV Astafyev, VA Nikitin, NV Bogdanova, L. I. Marinovsky, engineers M. M. Berklide, A. G. Belyaev, V. L. Glazunovsky, R. L. Rubinchik). It uses already real "brut concrete", including in the interior: unmasked prefabricated concrete floor structures look especially expressive thanks to the streams of light penetrating through the skylights.
The end of the 1960s, as you know, became a kind of borderline in the Soviet construction policy. The implementation of "jubilee" projects, most of them large-scale and occupying a prominent place in the already established architectural environment, was associated with such significant loss of heritage (a textbook example is Kalininsky Prospekt, which cut through the thin fabric of the Arbat lanes) that it made us think about a more careful approach to it. respect. This turn also affected VDNKh. The huge "Montreal" pavilion, transported from Canada after the 1967 World Exhibition, was reassembled in 1969 on the territory adjacent to the "historical" part of the exhibition. Subsequently, new structures appeared mainly in the outskirts of VDNKh, without intruding on the historical ensemble (an exception was the Trade Unions pavilion, built in 1985-1986 by V. Kubasov's project on Industry Square, where it fit into a number of pavilions that had previously received modernist facades). In those cases when it was necessary to expand the existing pavilions, the extensions were made from the rear, leaving the main façade intact. Curiously, starting in 1968, a new model was used for this - a project by Mies van der Rohe, made in 1959 for the Cuban headquarters of the Bacardi company and subsequently redesigned for the New National Gallery in West Berlin. A large-span coffered ceiling on thin supports hanging over a transparent glass shell was chosen as a solution for the expansion of the Electrical Engineering pavilion, formerly Belarusian USSR (No. 18, architect G. Zakharov, engineer M. Shvekhman) and was repeated in the annex pavilion "Metallurgy" (No. 11).
In the period from 1959 to the end of the 1960s, the ensemble of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition of 1939-1954, of course, suffered significant damage. But at the same time, the newly created VDNKh became a platform for architectural experiments, for testing new spatial solutions, new structures and materials, and new aesthetics. The group of buildings that arose in these years on the territory of the exhibition is of significant interest for the history of Soviet architecture, deserves preservation and careful study.
