Soviet constructivism was among many instances of the Bauhaus architecture taking root in a distant cultural and architectural milieu. The universal values embedded in the Bauhaus style interacted with socioeconomic conditions of a particular region and received unique interpretations in local aesthetic traditions. The case of Sverdlovsk-Ekaterinburg demonstrates the way, in which the presence of the Bauhaus experts, whose creative principles and expertise were adopted by local specialists, contributed to the formation of a distinct regional tradition in architecture and town-planning. This tradition emerged under the influence of numerous factors, such as the geographical remoteness of the territory from large metropolitan centers, specific socioeconomic conditions of the industrial region, and many others. The principles of the constructivist architecture penetrated the fabric of the social life in Sverdlovsk to such extent that they continue to shape the ways, in which the city’s territory, its actual and symbolic spaces are organized today, and they constitute its most prominent and recognizable visual emblems. However, in both popular and scholarly literature constructivism is often presented in terms of “cultural heritage,” a “museum in the open air.” When writing about constructivism, both historians of architecture and authors of popular tour guides focus on its stylistic features, while the social and the everyday aspects of this phenomenon are either ignored or downplayed.
The organizers of this workshop share a belief that in order for the city’s residents to connect to the constructivist architecture in a meaningful way, the constructivist ensembles ought to be conceptualized not only as “cultural heritage,” but as the indispensable part of the city’s present and the future. The goal of the current workshop is to expand the disciplinary frameworks, under which constructivism is generally studied and to try to look at the constructivist architecture in a variety of contexts: social, political, economic, aesthetic, the context of humanitarian geography and urban studies. We invite proposals that reflect on the ways, in which constructivism was and continues to play role in economic and social developments of the territory, in shaping the patterns of the citizens’ daily lives, of actual and symbolic spaces of the urban center.
The organizers welcome submissions from historians, architects, sociologists, anthropologists, specialists in political science, cultural studies, aesthetics and other disciplines, who analyze the legacies of the Bauhaus tradition and its metamorphoses in national, regional and local contexts.
Contributions related but not limited, to the following topics of interest are expected:
• What was the impact (if any) of the constructivist architecture on the urban ways of life: patterns of behavior, modes of social interaction, people’s habits?
• To what extent the Utopian images, embedded in the symbolic matrix of constructivism are relevant in today’s cultural paradigms?
• Do the aesthetic principles of constructivism, such as the cult of simplicity, minimalism and functionalism speak to aesthetic sensitivities of contemporary city dwellers?
• To what extent does the constructivism translate itself into the modern “concrete and glass” architecture, both world-wide and in the local case of Ekaterinburg?
• What were the factors that contributed to the emergence of the local tradition of constructivism in Sverdlovsk? How does the case of Sverdlovsk relate to other examples of the universal Bauhaus style taking root in distant territories and producing local architectural traditions?
• What are the theoretical, social and political discourses, which the architecture of constructivism is capable of producing in the current academic and popular discursive fields?
The following keynote speakers are expected to take part in the workshop:
Prof. Dr.h.c. Wolfgang Schuster (Germany)
Dr. Britta Kaiser-Schuster (Germany)
Prof. Leonid Salmin (Russia)
Eduard Kubensky (Russia)
Dr. Micha Gross (Israel) – via Skype conference
The organizers of this workshop share a belief that in order for the city’s residents to connect to the constructivist architecture in a meaningful way, the constructivist ensembles ought to be conceptualized not only as “cultural heritage,” but as the indispensable part of the city’s present and the future. The goal of the current workshop is to expand the disciplinary frameworks, under which constructivism is generally studied and to try to look at the constructivist architecture in a variety of contexts: social, political, economic, aesthetic, the context of humanitarian geography and urban studies. We invite proposals that reflect on the ways, in which constructivism was and continues to play role in economic and social developments of the territory, in shaping the patterns of the citizens’ daily lives, of actual and symbolic spaces of the urban center.
The organizers welcome submissions from historians, architects, sociologists, anthropologists, specialists in political science, cultural studies, aesthetics and other disciplines, who analyze the legacies of the Bauhaus tradition and its metamorphoses in national, regional and local contexts.
Contributions related but not limited, to the following topics of interest are expected:
• What was the impact (if any) of the constructivist architecture on the urban ways of life: patterns of behavior, modes of social interaction, people’s habits?
• To what extent the Utopian images, embedded in the symbolic matrix of constructivism are relevant in today’s cultural paradigms?
• Do the aesthetic principles of constructivism, such as the cult of simplicity, minimalism and functionalism speak to aesthetic sensitivities of contemporary city dwellers?
• To what extent does the constructivism translate itself into the modern “concrete and glass” architecture, both world-wide and in the local case of Ekaterinburg?
• What were the factors that contributed to the emergence of the local tradition of constructivism in Sverdlovsk? How does the case of Sverdlovsk relate to other examples of the universal Bauhaus style taking root in distant territories and producing local architectural traditions?
• What are the theoretical, social and political discourses, which the architecture of constructivism is capable of producing in the current academic and popular discursive fields?
The following keynote speakers are expected to take part in the workshop:
Prof. Dr.h.c. Wolfgang Schuster (Germany)
Dr. Britta Kaiser-Schuster (Germany)
Prof. Leonid Salmin (Russia)
Eduard Kubensky (Russia)
Dr. Micha Gross (Israel) – via Skype conference
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