Konstantin Melnikov
Konstantin Stepanovich Melnikov (Russian Константин Степанович Мельников, scientific transliteration Konstantin Mel'nikov Stepanovic; * 22 Julijul / August 3 1890greg in Moscow, .. † November 28, 1974 ) was a Soviet architect, who counted the vanguard of the constructivists will.
Life
Melnikov was born in 1890 in a working class family and graduated in 1902 from a church- oriented school. He then worked as a messenger boy in a trading company. In 1905, he joined with the help of a rich conveyor into the Moscow School of painting, architecture and sculpture, where he in 1914 with a degree in painting and in 1917 was awarded in architecture.
His first works were influenced by the classical architecture of the century change, such as his contributions to the first Russian car factory AMO in Moscow, where he witnessed the October Revolution during the works 1916 to 1918. In the following years he was involved in several construction projects.
A change of direction meant his teaching career at the Moscow State Artistic- Technical Master School ( Vkhutemas / Вхутемас ). The first result of his new style was the exhibition pavilion Machorka on the All-Russian Agricultural and craft exhibition in 1923. Sarcophagus for Lenin's Mausoleum was built in 1924 by Melnikov designs.
The Soviet pavilion at the Paris International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in 1925 attracted international attention: The building, a combination of glass and wood skeletal elements, was considered one of the most progressive buildings of the exhibition. Influences of five years older Vladimir Tatlin and his constructivism were visible.
More projects in Moscow were the rubber Clubhouse (1927 /28) and the House of Culture Rusakov (1927 /29). In the same year the car park for the State Planning Authority Gosplan in Moscow was built according to his plans. In the years 1926 to 1929 popularly called horseshoe garage, central garage for trucks and buses built with attached workshop in the Novo- Rjasanskaja Street in Moscow.
Despite a high technical level of his buildings Melnikov questioned repeatedly the basic premise of functionality; his works often more reminiscent of abstract sculptures for special purpose buildings. One of his most famous buildings, the "house Melnikov " (1928-1931) in the Moscow Kriwoarbatski Alley ( Kriwoarbatski Pereulok 10), consists of two cylindrical towers, interspersed with hexagonal windows.
1934-1937 taught Melnikov at the Moscow Institute of Architecture; During this time he experienced already criticism of his " fantasies " and could not realize many of his designs. He lived quietly and stepped back until 1964 with a competition entry for the pavilion for the World Expo 1967 in Montreal to the public.
Melnikov died on 28 November 1974 in Moscow and was buried there on the Wwedenskoje Cemetery.