"Never built" Communist monster projects

[TeLaVivi]

The Architecture of Moscow - from the 1930s to the early 1950s- Unrealised projects .
Taken from this website (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/index_e.htm)

Palace of Soviets. O.Iofan, O.Gelfreikh, V.Schuko. Sculptor S.Merkulov. A Version of the approved project. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/03e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/03.jpg

Рalace of Soviets (Dom Sovetov). B.Iofan, V.Gelfreikh, Ya.Вelopolsky, V.Pelevin, Sculptor S.Merkulov. A version of the approved project. 1946 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/14e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/14.jpg

The Hotel of the Moscow City Soviet ("Moskva"). L.Savelyev, C.Stapran. 1931 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/04e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/04.jpg

The Рalace of Technology. А.Samoylov, B.Yefomovich. 1933 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/05e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/05.jpg

The building of the People's Defence Commissariat. L.Rudnev. 1933 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/06e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/06.jpg

The building of the People's Соmmissariat of Heavy Industry, A. Vesoin, V, Vesnin, S. Lyaschenko. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/02e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/02.jpg

The building of the People's Commissariat of Нeavy Industry. I.Fomin, P.Abrosimov, M.Minkus. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/07e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/07.jpg

The building of the People's Commissariat of Нeavy Industry. А.Vesnin, V.Vesnin, S.Lyaschenko. Version. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/08e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/08.jpg

The Aeroflot Building. D.Chechulin. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/09e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/09.jpg

House of Books (Dом Knigi). I.Golosov, P.Antonov, A.Zhuravlev. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/10e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/10.jpg

"Heroes' Аrch". A monument to the heroic defenders of Moscow. L.Pavlov. 1942 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/11e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/11.jpg

Residental building on Vosstaniya Square. V.Oltarzhevsky, I.Kuznetsov. 1947 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/12e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/12.jpg

Tall building in Zaryadye. View from the Red Square. D.Chechulin. 1948 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/13e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/13.jpg

is this cool or what ? :eek: some of these projects are insane .

[Jai]

Ahh... palaces of the masses

http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/08.jpg
^ That one looks strikingly modern... if the face was glass it could be mistaken for a proposal today

[IchO]

TeLaVivi, This is one of the best threads EVER released on SSC.
If you have some more meterial such as this one. I'm in Icho99@Gmail.com
And i'm in Tel-Aviv right now aswell.

[Nick in Atlanta]

These buildings are about as hilarious as they are insane. This was all during Stalin's rule. I'm sure that most of these "architects" were killed in one of his massive purges.

The Aeroflot building would actually look kind of interesting. But the Defence building is an enourmous monstrosity!

[Balikbayan]

The Aeroflot bldg is somewhat similar to the Russian White House (the one that was shelled during the coup against Yeltsin and repaired by Turkish contractors)

[Thunderflip]

Wow, those structures look very imperial and ambitious!

[city of the future]

Can't forget the monument to the third, internation which would hyave been round 400m

[Frog]

shame these wernt built, they would have been amazing :(

[Saigoneseguy]

Magnificient ...somehow insane but remember they date back to the 30s,and i think those Commie architects have already known that some plans were just vision/fantasy ideas,and they apparently didn't come up with that.
The 'House of Books' has a very prominent design,too.

[Urban Dave]

:omg: They look amazing! Big, huge, massive.... All a good Skyscraper fan could ever dream! :rofl:

[sturman]

Ivan Leonidov's proposal for Ministry of Heavy Industry (1929-30). It was to be situated at the same parsel as the Vesniny's project shown above.

It is often called a mother of all modern 'box' scrapers:

http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/May_18_1999/1325.jpg

http://www.herringerkissgallery.com/photogallery/wsteinberg/Vidute%20di%20Leonidov.jpg

http://www.utopia.ru/animation/344.0.jpg http://www.utopia.ru/animation/344.1.jpg http://www.utopia.ru/animation/344.2.jpg http://www.utopia.ru/animation/344.3.jpg

http://sturman.journ.msu.ru/pics/leonidov/02.jpg

http://sturman.journ.msu.ru/pics/leonidov/01.jpg

http://sturman.journ.msu.ru/pics/leonidov/03.jpg

http://sturman.journ.msu.ru/pics/leonidov/04.jpg

http://sturman.journ.msu.ru/pics/leonidov/05.jpg

http://sturman.journ.msu.ru/pics/leonidov/06.jpg

[Pedrillo]

Impressive thread! :applause:

[Gatis]

OMG, that Ivan Leonidov's proposal is great for its times! It would be cool if it still would be built - but not next to Red Square.
To my mind all this just shows that architectonically we still are living in era of Functionalism. Great thread, thanks!

[ELV]

incredible buildings!!!!

[TallBox]

excellent thread tel aviv!

a lot of those are pretty damn impressive - my favourites are Palace of Soviets (naturally), the Aeroflot building, and the Defence Commissariat


they should build those!!

[lindenthaler]

That s really one of the best threads ever, i d rather have this buildings than skyscrapers (except the first one, where instead of stalin can be another figure, and only when it s all is neutral, so non-communist)

[Genç]

Wow, some of those buildings are incredible!

[samsonyuen]

Wow, great collection! Some of these would look pretty cool in real-life too!

[_alonso_]

that's what I call BIG commies :eek2:

[rark]

i seriously wouldnt mind some of those structures being built :D

[ChrisCharlton]

oo

[ChrisCharlton]

Cool thread.

Really interesting to see the influece of deco on the mainly 1930's proposals. Also what struck me was the magnificence and status of them - seemingly at odds with communist values? What about the cars in the rendering, all looked very expensive and large, no signs there of the communist values of workers uniting - seems more about dreams sadly never realised.

[thepoorman]

wow, temples to community. er...

[coth]

here is more
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=120441

[doormanpoet]

Absolutely amazing! The Soviet Union spent a lot of money on the space program and the cold war. Just imagine if all this had been built. It turns out that Communism fell and the cold war ended and nothing ever came of this beautiful architecture.

[Chibcha2k]

----what a shame that they were never built, they are gorgeous

[Ubo]

Bleedin awesome buildings, especially the commisarriet of heavy industry building

[some_stupid_nut]

They really have some cool buildings! I think I like Stalinist architecture. It has that grandeur I'm crazy about.

[satit28]

those are cool..........
imagine if they were built.............
what will moscow be like today..........
it'll be full of these beautiful buildings..........

[Avatar]

I'd have to agree, with many of you, this thread is fantastic. Thanks for the insight into proposed soviet architecture.

Some of the designs are so grand, so intricate and so overpowering, funnily enough I really like some of them. I will also concede some of them are remarkably modern for their time... amazing that that box style scraper was conceived 1929-1930 era - such foresight! Even teh House of Books buidling appears strikingly more modern than similar buildings from this period - with large opening/windows and less stepping, same too for the aeroflot building which uses large expanses of glass, not normally found in art deco period building elsewhere in the world.

[algonquin]

reminds me of the Hitler/Speer makeover Berlin would have got.

http://geogate.geographie.uni-marburg.de/deuframat/images/5/5_4/kiecol/pic19.jpg

http://www.robsacc.nl/images/galleries/Grosseplatz05.jpg

[Pim]

reminds me of the Hitler/Speer makeover Berlin would have got.

http://geogate.geographie.uni-marburg.de/deuframat/images/5/5_4/kiecol/pic19.jpg

http://www.robsacc.nl/images/galleries/Grosseplatz05.jpg

Do you have any more pictures? I'd be very appreciated.. :)

[spicytimothy]

wow... such amazing architecture...

guess it's up to the Chinese now :-D

[Sen]

I LOVE COMMUNISM!

[M.Poirot]

The Aeroflot Building. D.Chechulin. 1934 (http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/09e.htm)
http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/09.jpg



http://img283.echo.cx/img283/9126/bikkuri20wr.jpg !!!!

Oh Shit! Great Building! :eek2:

[Blue_Copper]

Love the thread but the buildings are very ugly

[metcalf]

To bad some of these biuldings were not biult, i thinkthat the shearness of them would havebeen amazing, almost brutalist.They would have been monumentsto the time and idea.

[Gendo]

If this had a clock instead of the oversized statue, it wouldn't be bad at all.

http://www.muar.ru/ve/2003/moscow/images/03.jpg

[blizzardic]

very impressive. expecting more

[Leienaar]

Impressive buildings! That Stalin statue would have been the biggest statue in the world I guess? It is so huge that even the gigantic building under it looks rather small.

[beiklopa]

its not Stalin's statue, it's Lenin's statue. there are plenty of the similar ones around the ex-USSR region.

[sussucre]

very nice thread guys ! :)

Lenin's statue was expected to be 80m high.
but how would they have put it upthere ?!? :? :D :?

[Küsel]

These pics are FANTASTIC!!!

Here some more of Speer's Germania:
http://ablecd.wz.cz/darkside/article/germania-city.jpg

The Südbahnhof:
http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/April_29_1999/RR.jpg

Total Overview:
http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/April_29_1999/Map2.jpg

The main Avenue:
http://faculty-web.at.northwestern.edu/art-history/werckmeister/April_13_1999/Berlin.jpg

The Stadium (blueprint was for sure Circus Maximus):
http://www.srcs.nctu.edu.tw/joyceliu/mworks/mw-onlinecourse/paranoia_se/ThirtReichArtIndex/Photo/245stadium.JPG

[Fallout]

these are much better to most of what is built in Moscow (or chinese cities) nowadays.

[sussucre]

well fortunatly these nowadays constructions in china or russia don't have exactly the same aim than Germania... these are not following the purpose of war... :)

[Küsel]

Germania would have been built on the ruins of Berlin - not destroyed by war but by Hitler and Speer - parallels to Nero are obvious... Okay, what they did in central Singapore and in Barcelona (for the Olympic games) was also not the friendliest way ;) Or how is it now in Zimbabwe?

[ferge]

If the main Russian tower with Lenin had been built It would of no doubt been one of the World's modern wonders.. It would be like putting ms Liberty statue herself on top of ESB or something, bizarre to imagine.

[dave8721]

Sure beats that giant pyramid thing in North Korea.

[tommygunn]

the Russians like there statues.

[empersouf]

I really wished al these buildings were built, I wonder why they aren't. No money probably?

[sussucre]

Sure beats that giant pyramid thing in North Korea.

ya right, still not finished yet, this wicked pyramid !!! :D

[lindenthaler]

^^ yes it s weird, here is a pic

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/skward2/simon/large/dprk/hotel105.jpg

[Küsel]

You can't judge it now - it's not finnished and maybe it never will be (financial problems). I saw once a very nice blueish glass coverage...

[empersouf]

I like though it's ugly :)

[worldwide]

i like that pyramid too, id like to se it in person

[Gladys8it]

Wow, what an interesting thread!!

Some of those buildings are amazing, and amazingly massive. I'm going to generalize now but, it's funny how some Communist of Stalin's era thought that bigger was better.

Cheers!!

[zergcerebrates]

These projects look very grandeur and demonstrates the power of the country. Well remember this was before the war, if it was completed during 1930-1945 those buildings could of been bombed by Hitler.

[aleph_null]

Look at the Moscow now… what the hell happened? Thos are some really amazing concepts.

[deli]

still mesmerised by the empire feeling... THAT is what communist world should look like.....