The famous Russian and Soviet architect Ginzburg was born in Minsk in 1892. His father was an architect. Perhaps this influenced the fact that the boy from an early childhood was fond of painting, drawing, and in addition, composed wonderful stories. In the commercial school, where he was sent to study, the future architect Ginzburg illustrated the school’s magazine and willingly wrote the scenery for amateur performances. Having successfully graduated from college, he continued his studies in Europe.
Paris, Milan, Moscow
The architect Ginzburg in Paris, at the Academy of Fine Arts, began to study the basics of the profession, and after some time he moved to Toulouse to study in the famous and prosperous architectural school at that time. But he did not stay there long. Sensing complete readiness for an even higher education, the young architect Ginzburg went to Milan, where he studied in the class of a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Gaetano Moretti. This master is famous for numerous Italian attractions. He designed, for example, the facade of the church of St. Racca in Milan, restored the collapsed bell tower of the Venetian Cathedral of St. Mark. It was under the leadership of this wonderful master that the wonderful Soviet architect Moses Ginzburg learned the basics of the profession.
Moretti was a staunch supporter of the classics, but did not stop his student from getting carried away with European modernism. Moreover, at the end of the training, the architect Moses Ginzburg was greatly impressed by the work of the American innovator in the architecture of Frank Wright. Ginzburg returned to Moscow in 1914 with a Milan diploma. He felt that the baggage of his knowledge was not so small, but he needed to learn more. Moses Ginzburg replenished his knowledge all his life and was never satisfied with their volume. He filled the technical gap at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, which was evacuated in Moscow due to the First World War.
New and old
In 1917, Moses Ginzburg was developing a building project in Yevpatoriya. For this, he had to live four years in the Crimea. It was there that he survived all the demolition of the existing system and the Civil War. When the situation subsided, he headed the department engaged in the protection of architectural monuments, enthusiastically studied the traditions of the Crimean Tatar architecture. The scientific work "Tatar art in Crimea" written on this subject is still relevant.
The works of Moses Ginzburg always succeeded, including the writers. This man loved to work and knew how to do it. There were legends about his productivity. His numerous articles and books are distinguished by a superbly thought out structure, impeccable and very beautiful style. He wrote not for individual architects, but for the widest public - he easily presented the criteria for any novelty and complexity. The venerable professionals also had the opportunity to learn a lot from his books.
For example, in 1923 his highly acclaimed book "Rhythm in Architecture" was published, and in 1924 another monograph on the profession "Style and Age" was published. Even then, in the lines of his first books, the author defended new approaches in the design and construction of buildings. Constructivism began to actively develop in a young country. Moses Ginzburg advocated precisely this method, having been a teacher at MVTU and VKHUTEMAS since 1921.
The number of constructivism advocates grew. By that time, views on the relationship between the old and the new in architecture had already formed. The triumph of technological progress and a completely different way of life could not but affect the environment, changing it almost beyond recognition. Defending constructivism, Moses Ginzburg called the old architectural forms of the national style decorative. He argued that their resurrection makes no sense.
Innovation Team
In the early twenties, Moses Yakovlevich Ginzburg worked in the editorial office of the journal "Architecture", where he managed to assemble a team of like-minded architects with innovative views. They willingly rallied in the fight against eclecticism that prevailed in those days. The year 1925 was marked by the creation of the OCA (Association of Modern Architects), where the leaders in ideology were Alexander Vesnin and Moses Ginzburg.
The architects' projects were surprising, and some adherents of the old school were even amazed. In the journal "Modern Architecture" (began to be published in 1926), almost all publications extolled the functionality of thinking, which is characteristic of constructivism, and debunked eclecticism.
For the formation of constructivism had to literally fight. The architect Ginzburg said about Moscow that there are too many excesses in her appearance, and every detail must meet practical, not aesthetic requirements. Buildings in the style of constructivism were assembled from several volumes, the mathematical approach dominated here.
If the functionality is observed and everything is taken into account correctly, the external form will certainly be beautiful, as representatives of the avant-garde believed. This was confirmed by the project put forward for the competition in 1923 - the Palace of Labor, which was created by the architect M. Ginzburg (in collaboration with A. Greenberg). Unfortunately, the project was not implemented, but even today experts are keenly interested in it: the round volume of the large hall, the semicircular - small, rectangular buildings, towers, portico - all this was decided in monumental, heavy forms. More details about this work will be described below.
House of the People's Commissar
Inside the building, each function takes a specific place - this is the main difference between the style of Moses Ginzburg, whose biography is presented in our article. It traces both traditions inherited from parents and new aspects based on the impressions of being in Italy. His ideas got their logical continuation: the first attempts appeared to socialize the whole life of a person of a new formation (Soviet citizen) within the framework of a built building. So, in 1930, the house of the People’s Commissariat appeared on Novinsky Boulevard (this is the People’s Commissariat of Finance of the USSR). Ginzburg was looking for new forms of building design. In 1926, a residential building on Malaya Bronnaya was built according to his design, and in 1928 the construction of the house of the People's Commissariat of Finance began. This building went down in the history of Russian architecture and became a monument of the era.
It turned out something between a communal house and an ordinary multi-apartment project, even the apartments in it were called cells. Residents had to use common premises for domestic needs, and cultural ones outside the apartment, for which, according to the architects' plan, a common communal building was provided, where there were nurseries, a library, a dining room, and a gym. All this was combined with residential premises with a covered passage.
For the project of the house of the People’s Commissariat, Ignatius Milinis and Moses Ginzburg chose the style in architecture, according to the five starting points of modern architecture from the pioneer of modernism Le Corbusier. The supports freed the facade from the load, because they were moved inside the house. Therefore, the entire residential building, as if floating above the ground. A garden was laid out on the terrace roof, windows encircled the building like ribbons. Already in those days, the architect Moses Ginsburg used free planning in his projects. Due to this, in the house of the People’s Commissariat, each apartment is located on several tiers without interfloor ceilings.
Architects went even further: even typical furniture was specially designed, and the color scheme of ceilings and walls was made unified. Warm and cold shades were used: yellow, ocher, gray, blue. It is a huge success that such houses were preserved in Moscow. The architect Ginsburg, thanks to his talent, has become a modern classic. Subsequently, the openings between the columns were laid, because the building was rapidly decaying. At the moment, the famous house is being restored. Preserved in the same style and some other buildings. Moses Ginzburg designed similar structures with passages in Yekaterinburg (the house of the Uraloblsovnarkhoz) and in Moscow (a hostel in the Rostokino area).
Vanguard goes into the shadows
In 1932, literary and artistic organizations were abolished by a special decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Therefore, the architectural associations were liquidated. Instead, they organized the Union of Architects, which promoted a policy of developing the heritage of the past. It took literally a few years to change the requirements of style in architecture. However, the fight against eclecticism was not in vain. This is confirmed by the projects created in those years.
Ginzburg remained constructivist, accepting the architectural culture of the past years only as a way to find inspiration for a new artistic image. During these years, he wrote many articles in which he argued that traditions are almost always determined by technical capabilities, and now architects are armed much better. Therefore, in the era of reinforced concrete it is not too reasonable to rely on the criteria of antiquity.
In 1933, brothers Victor and Alexander Vesnins, together with Moses Ginzburg, developed a project for a public building in Dnepropetrovsk - the House of Soviet Organizations. The project was with elements of constructivism, but other features also appeared in it - a much more complex and effective volumetric spatial composition, clearly contrary to the ideas of Ginzburg of the twenties. In 1936, this work took part in the competition of projects of the Soviet pavilion for the World Exhibition in Paris, the one where in 1937 all foreigners were surprised not by Ginzburg, but by Boris Iofan, who won the competition. Sculpture Mukhina "Worker and Collective Farm Girl" crowned the pavilion.
Labor palace
Soviet architects have always paid much attention to the construction of public buildings, filling them with new social meaning. The case was unknown, without any clear differentiation according to their purpose. Therefore, often the search for new forms was carried out in the process of creating the project, when ideas appeared regarding the inclusion of functions not previously used in these buildings, because the people's needs in public life changed dramatically. These were whole factories where trade union, party, cultural, educational, Soviet public organizations functioned.
Such searches were not only successful at the first stage, they gave posterity a differentiated approach to the development of multidisciplinary knowledge. The Labor Palace is just such a structure, an example of a complex type of public building. The project competition was held in Moscow. He was declared by the Moscow Soviet in 1922. The plot was splendid. Subsequently, the Moscow Hotel was built there.
House of Textiles
The recovery period in the country was coming to an end, industrial construction began, international trade ties were established. All this led to the creation of numerous administrative (office) buildings for industrial and commercial organizations. They had to be not only comfortable, but also impressive in order to adequately represent the country.
Ginzburg designed three such structures during this period. The House of Textiles is the first project created in 1925 for the All-Union Textile Syndicate. This organization and announced a competition for the design of the building in Zaryadye. The competition program was quite complex, the architects had almost no freedom of action: ten floors with the exact location of the institutions, only pure functionality. Ginzburg received the third prize in the competition, in which forty projects participated. Many architects consider this work the best both in functionality, in composition, and in maintaining spatial volume.
The solution is very compact, clear software requirements are met exactly. Office rooms are highlighted by horizontal windows, the reinforced concrete frame clearly reflects the structural structure of the building - constructivism in its purest form. The next two floors are a hotel. Here glazing is decided differently. It is smaller, but the configuration is complicated due to the rhythmically located ledges and terraces. On the tenth floor - a fully glazed restaurant, made in the form of a pavilion with a terrace. In the basement it was planned to equip a garage, wardrobe and department store. Other basement floors were reserved for warehouses.
Rusgertorg and Orgametall houses
The second in a series designed by Ginzburg was the Rusgertorg House, intended for the Moscow office of the trading Russian-German joint-stock company. It was supposed to be located on the "red" line - Tverskaya Street. The project was completed in 1926 immediately after the building for textile workers, therefore, in their external forms there is much in common (except for premises for offices).
Likewise, large areas were allotted for office premises, there were window tapes with similar horizontal lines, a cafe on the top floor with an open terrace. The courtyard was supposed to be a hotel building for living quarters, in which balconies were provided. From Tverskaya, the entire first floor is huge glass shop windows. There is also a cinema in one of the buildings.
The third project was completed in 1927 and was intended for the joint-stock company Orgametall. This building included two main and completely heterogeneous parts - a huge exhibition hall where cars were to be exhibited. The whole ground floor was allotted to him, and office premises were located above. And for these two projects, increased demands were made, the constructiveness of the solution was expected to be very high. Premises of such a different orientation are difficult to make comfortable for workers. However, Ginzburg did it well.
Expressive constructivism
Ginzburg was extremely interesting in using volumetric-spatial compositions in his office building projects. Here, his desire to make the appearance look expressive becomes very noticeable. This desire was crowned with success. Be sure to note the contrasts: the fully glazed bottom of the building and the dull walls of the floors above, horizontal tapes of office windows and much more.
Each of the three projects considered was sequentially complicated in terms of composition. The most dynamic was the composition for the Orgametall society. Even the color on the facades is applied very competently, increasing the expressiveness of the appearance of buildings. In addition, the skillful use of the font on signs works to achieve the goal. In the architecture of the twenties of the last century, projects of buildings for offices, completed by Ginzburg, have rightfully become a real phenomenon. Now they are studied by specialists and are considered modern classics.
In the mid-twenties Ginzburg makes many other building projects with clearly defined programs. Labor palaces in Dnepropetrovsk and Rostov-on-Don are just two great examples. Both buildings had to be made multifunctional. They needed to provide a theater, a sports complex, assembly halls, lecture halls, reading rooms and libraries, a dining room, a concert hall, rooms for conducting circles and studio work.
The architect created projects that meet all the requirements, highlighting the main functional groups in the buildings: club, sports, theater (spectacular). He used not a compact plan, but separate buildings, which in one way or another were connected to each other. It turned out to be a complex composition in volume and space, but in external simplicity and harmony it did not lose. The construction of Moses Ginzburg required new solutions. In the design of public buildings, such finds have appeared that now serve as objects of study. No one in those days was able to think so thoroughly of the functional side of the structure, no one was able to combine with such naturalness into a single whole that was previously divided.
Prewar and wartime
In the thirties and forties, the demand for constructivism was less than in the twenties, but much of Ginzburg’s ideas took root. For example, in 1930 he developed the project of a low-rise complex "Green City". This marked the beginning of the construction of prefabricated model housing. Despite the triumphant gait of industrialization, the idea of Ginzburg to separate industrial areas from residential green areas was accepted, which is now widely used.
During the Great Patriotic War, the master was seriously ill, but worked very hard on plans to restore the destroyed cities. He met the victory, working on projects of buildings of sanatoriums in Kislovodsk and in Oreanda on the southern coast of Crimea. They were built after the death of the architect, who cut short his life in January 1946.
Многие другие великолепные мастера этой эпохи не смогли воплотить в жизнь столько проектов, сколько их реализовал Моисей Гинсбург. Очень много среди них общественных зданий: в Москве - это здание Русгерторга, Дом текстилей, Дворец труда, Крытый рынок, в Махачкале - Дом Советов, санатории в Кисловодске и много других строений в разных городах бывшего Советского Союза.
