Narvskaya collective kitchen, Barutchev, Gilter, Meerzon and Rubanchik, St Petersburg 1932

ASNOVA (Russian: АСНОВА; abbreviation for Ассоциацией новых архитекторов, "Association of New Architects") was an Avant-Garde architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active in the 1920s and early 1930s, commonly called 'the Rationalists'. Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and... Lissitzky, Beat the Whites With the Red Wedge, lithograph, 1919 The Russian avant-garde is an umbrella term used to define the large, influential wave of modern art that flourished in Russia from approximately 1890 to 1930 - although some place its beginning as early as 1850 and its end as...

The association was started in 1923 by Nikolai Ladovsky,^[1] a teacher at VKhUTEMAS and member of INKhUK, along with other avant-garde architects such as Vladimir Krinsky. Ladovsky's teaching, although definitively Modernist was nevertheless more 'intuitive' than Functionalist, and was partly based on gestalt psychology. In 1919 Ladovsky defined architectural rationalism as 'the economy of psychic energy in the perceprion of spacial and functional aspects of a building', as opposed to a 'technical rationalism'.^[2]. The group's researches were particularly influenced by the work of Hugo Münsterberg, and Ladovsky built a psychotechnical laboratory in 1926 based on Münsterberg's theory of industrial psychology.^[3] In general the group concentrated on creating 'psycho-organisational' effects (as Ladovsky put it) with architecture: a sculptural rather than functional approach, leading to accusations of 'formalism' by the nascent OSA Group. ASNOVA and OSA engaged in polemics over terminology and the claim to 'constructivism'.^[4] Collective House, 1921 Metro Station, 1935 Nikolai Alexandrovich Ladovsky (born 1881, Moscow - died 1941, Moscow) was a Russian Constructivist architect. ... VKhUTEMAS (Russian acronym for Higher State Art and Technical Workshops) was the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, and dissolved in 1930. ... Le Corbusiers Villa Savoye, a well known example of modern architecture Modern architecture,not to be confused with contemporary architecture, is a term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament, that first arose around 1900. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Hugo Münsterberg (1863-1916) was a German-born American]] psychologist. ... Cover of SA, 1927 The OSA Group (Union of Contemporary Architects) was an architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active from 1925 to 1930 and considered the first group of constructivist architects. ... Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. ...

Design for a skyscraper by Vladimir Krinsky, 1920

The group received a boost when El Lissitzky became a proponent in the mid-20s, designing the one issue of the journal ASNOVA News in 1926. In addition Konstantin Melnikov, then as now the most famous Soviet Modernist architect, was a member of the group at one point,^[4] preferring its concentration on affect and intuition to the OSA's scientific precision: although he and Ilya Golosov would form a 'centre' group between ASNOVA and OSA. Berthold Lubetkin, better known for his work in London, was also an early associate of the group. The 1928 'flying city' of Georgy Krutikov was an ASNOVA project that was both famous and notorious for its Utopianism, inflected with motifs from Science Fiction.   (Лазарь Маркович Лисицкий, November 23, 1890 – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Эль Лисицкий), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect. ... One of buildings designed by Melnikov Konstantin Stepanovitch Melnikov (Russian Константин Степанович Мельников; July 22 (August 3) 1890, Moscow - November 28, 1974, Moscow) was a Russian architect and major figure member of the Constructivist avant-garde in the early 20th century. ... Zuev Workers Club, 1926 Ilya Alexandrovich Golosov (born 1883, Moscow - died 1945, Moscow) was a Russian Constructivist architect and brother of Panteleimon Golosov. ... Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990) was a Russian emigré architect who pioneered modernist design in Britain in the 1930s. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into utopia. ...

ASNOVA members were prolific in paper projects and competitions but built rarely.^[5] Members Melnikov and Ladovsky were awarded first and second place respectively in the competition for the Soviet pavilion at the 1925 Paris exhibition.^[4] A few realized projects survive in the former USSR. Most notable are Ladovsky's apartment block on Tverskaya in Moscow (1929) and a series of three kitchens and communal facilities built in Leningrad between 1928-31 by an ASNOVA team made up of A. K. Barutchev, I. A. Gil'ter, I.A. Meerzon and Ya. O. Rubanchik. ASNOVA split in 1928 when Ladovsky set up his own group, the ARU (Association of Architect-Urbanists), although ASNOVA joint entries were made for the Palace of Soviets competition. The group was dissolved in 1932 along with all other artistic associations. Leningrad (Russian: Ленинград) may mean: St. ... Categories: Buildings in Moscow | Soviet Union | Stub ...

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