The long haul to restore Soviet masterpiece for collective living
moscow — Neglected and abused, Moscow’s Narkomfin apartment block, a Soviet masterpiece admired around the world, is finally being restored to its original, pioneering state. Architect Alexey Ginzburg is leading the project and for the first time since the 1940s, he says it looks like how his grandfather Moisei Ginzburg intended.
Standing on rows of elegant black pillars, the 1930 long, lowslung block was built at a time when Soviet architects influenced global trends with their radical, yet functional style, known as constructivism. Narkomfin was designed to look light and almost float above a surrounding garden. But decades ago, the city authorities bricked up the space under the building and used it for offices.
For Ginzburg, clearing those walls away to put the building back on its pillars was one of the “historic days” in a family project 30 years in the making. For lovers of Moscow’s trove of iconic but long-neglected avant-garde architecture, this restoration project is a test case. “It’s what everyone has been waiting for,” said Natalia Melikova, a Russian-American photographer and campaigner, who created The Constructivist Project website that documents and monitors avant-garde architecture in various Russian cities and has chronicled Narkomfin’s turbulent recent history.
Ginzburg’s expert restoration — funded by private developers but trumpeted by city officials — offers a “glimmer of hope” for other such buildings, she said. But as modernism fell out of favour with the Soviet authorities, the building, located behind the US embassy, fell into disrepair. Recently, it appeared almost derelict with chunks of plaster fallen from the facade and graffiti on walls. A yoga studio, cafes and a vintage clothing store opened inside several years ago, while insensitive modernisation replaced original elements. “UPVC (windows), ceramic tiles, wooden beams and all that, oh my God!” Ginzburg declared.
The 48-year-old, who works in Moscow and London, helped his architect father campaign to restore the building in the 1990s and continued after his death. His wife, Natalia, also works on the project. —