The Soviet architectural avant-garde is recognized as the main contribution of Russia to the world culture of the 20th century. The history of the Soviet architectural avant-garde is amazing - the attempts to build a "new world" in the hungry and ruined young Land of the Soviets were recognized by the whole world as the avant-garde of the international architectural movement. After a brilliant decade, marked by breakthroughs and insights of a universal human scale, there is a sharp change in the course of architectural policy. The conquests of the avant-garde in the mid-1930s were declared delusions, and a reorientation towards the development of the world classical heritage is taking place. The avant-garde tradition in the "Soviet Union of free republics" was interrupted. The legacy of the Soviet architectural avant-garde, having not received official recognition in its country, over time, was under the threat of irreversible loss.
Modern times are changing the attitude towards the phenomenon of the Soviet architectural avant-garde. Realized its value for the history and culture of the country. The task of preserving the avant-garde heritage is no longer formulated by individual enthusiasts, but by state institutions. One of the main directions of its solution is the search for a new meaning and purpose of avant-garde monuments, which directly requires “design after design”. The exhibition project, using the example of specific objects, demonstrates the main approaches to solving the urgent demand of time in Russia today.
In the field of problems of protecting the architectural heritage of Russia, the monuments of the Soviet avant-garde are "in the zone of special risk." There are a number of reasons for this: the initially low quality of construction, carried out in conditions of technical backwardness and devastation, the illiterate operation of buildings throughout their existence, but the main thing is the lack of understanding of the true value of the constructivist heritage for national history and culture in the country. The problem is aggravated by the lack of experience in preserving the legacy of the 1920s and the neglect of its condition, which threatens to result in irreversible losses. The vector of state policy today is aimed at preserving the constructivist heritage and introducing it into the world cultural turn. However, the problem of preserving each specific monument requires its adaptation to the existence in new conditions. Each time, a wide range of issues related to the economy of the object is considered, not only during the period of its restoration, but also during subsequent operation, with the degree of admissibility of the penetration of new technologies and new design solutions into it, a delicate balance is weighed between the initial design and constructive ideas embodied in certain materials and the need to introduce new ones. The problem of “design after design” has no standard solutions, each time requiring a deep penetration into the history of the creation of the monument. The idea of the exhibition: to demonstrate approaches to the preservation of avant-garde monuments in Russia, the main strategies used in the design thinking of recent years, aimed at preserving the avant-garde monuments and defining their new meaning. The exhibition will show what ideas and projects are being developed and supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation in this direction.
The focus of the exhibition is directed to five specific examples: the House of K. Melnikov in Krivoarbatsky lane in Moscow (1927–1929), the Maslennikov factory kitchen in Samara (1932), Garage for trucks on Novoryazanskaya street in Moscow (1929–1931), The Drama Theater in Rostov-on-Don (1930-1935), the White Tower in Yekaterinburg (1928-1931). The focus group did not include such famous monuments as the House of Narkomfin, the House-Commune of Nikolaev, clubs in Moscow and other cities of Russia, the Krasny Gvozdilshchik Factory in St. Petersburg, the Chekistov Gorodok in Yekaterinburg and many others. The examples selected for the exhibition project relate to the practice of recent years, which most clearly demonstrates the approaches to solving the problems of the constructivist heritage and the tools with which it is possible to solve them. The most traditional way is to finance the restoration of the monument without changing its function by allocating targeted funds from the federal budget (Theater in Rostov-on-Don), which implies the development and implementation of a scientific restoration project. In this case, "design after design" aims to bring out historical authenticity. Among the most direct approaches is the museumification of the monument with its subsequent scientific restoration (the Melnikov House in Moscow). This implies the need for special delicacy in working with the monument - only engineering and structural systems are subject to renovation, the monument remains inviolable, and the museum functions fit into the immediate environment, which requires virtuoso project and design solutions. The approach is being successfully promoted, implying the use of the monument for a new cultural function with the appropriate adaptation (Factory-kitchen in Samara). In this case, the design ideology allows for the possibility of architectural additions based on the dialogue of modern design thinking with the historical tradition of the place and the genetics of the monument itself. A larger-scale approach implies a new use of the monument - its adaptation to a powerful cultural function, entailing the regeneration of the entire adjacent territory (Garage on Novoryazanskaya Street in Moscow). Design in this case is aimed not only at solving the problem of preserving the authenticity of the monument, but at the same time at expanding its functions due to new construction, usually large-scale. Finally, the support of local initiatives aimed at saving the monument through the allocation of a targeted grant from the state budget (White Tower in Yekaterinburg) is also a manifestation of "social design" - a tool that positively affects the fate of the monument.
The selected examples show different approaches to working with the monuments of the Soviet architectural avant-garde: from restoration, which requires a very correct design, restoring the original idea in the original materials to the best of its ability, to a monument renovation project in combination with a master plan for the development of an entire area, the idea of which is directly related to the new function. buildings that have a powerful city-forming value.
Having once become examples of a breakthrough in architectural thought to new foundations and principles of architectural design, the monuments of the Soviet architectural avant-garde today cannot remain dead exhibits - they require new life, new meaning, including design rethinking, that is, “design after design”. It is important to understand that the long and laborious process of saving any monument begins with developing a strategy, which is demonstrated by the exhibition project. The exposition range includes not only historical photos and video chronicles of the creation of avant-garde objects and their existence, but also graphically presented concepts of their renovation, design developments for their adaptation and restoration.