Boris Velikovsky (1878-1937): Architect of the Russian Avant-Garde

Description

With his residential buildings, office blocks, schools and factories, Boris Velikovsky (1878-1937) made a definitive contribution to Russian avant-garde architecture. His early constructions, such as Gribov House in Moscow, are still very much bound to Russian Neoclassicism, yet since the Revolution of 1917, he increasingly designed Constructivist architecture. One example is his Gostorg Management Building, distinguished by glass facades, the functional division of space and use of state-of-the-art materials. Furthermore in the garden city of Druzhba for instance, Velikovsky intensively engaged with new ideas in town planning. With mostly hitherto unpublished technical plans as well as numerous historical and new colour photographs of his most famous projects, Boris Velikowsky's contribution to Russian avant-garde architecture is appreciated for the first time in book form.

Elena Ovsyannikova, PhD, is professor of architectural history at the Moscow Institute of Architecture (MArchI) and chairwoman of DOCOMOMO - Moscow Centre. She publishes widely on modern architecture, the Russian avant-garde and heritage preservation. Nikolai Vassiliev, PhD, is a well-known historian of architecture, urban planning and design. He is secretary general of DOCOMOMO Russia and has curated exhibitions at the Moscow Design Museum. In 2008 to 2010 Elena Ovsyannikova and Nikolai Vassiliev were the Moscow team coordinators of Moskonstruct, an exhibition and research project of La Sapienza University, Rome, and MArchI, Moscow, sponsored by the European Commission.