Regional Executive Committee

(Regional administration)

 

 

 

On 29 July 1930 the National Executive Committee resolved to establish West-Siberian Region with Novosibirsk as a capital city. New buildings were needed for government bodies, rapidly growing in number. At that time the architecture of public buildings was to become a sort of drive to educate people, propaganda of socialist ideas and embodiment of powerful Soviet regime. A competition was held for the project of the Regional Executive Committee building. One of the participants was the famous Moscow architect Alexander Z. Grinberg (together with Mikail T. Smurov), who had already built the Soviets House in Bryansk (in collaboration with B.M. Velikovsky), Nizhny Novgorod and Tula. But Grinberg's project was not implemented in Novosibirsk. The lower portion (up to the first floor) was constructed to a design by Andrei Kryachkov. Young architects Boris Gordeev and Sergei Turgenev then reworked the floor plan and totally redid all the facades.

A technician designer K.K. Leonov who worked on the design drawings of the building recollected: the conceptual design by professor Andrei D. Kryachkov was simple and rational in terms of floor plan, with good proportions. But the facades were dry and inexpressive. Boris A Gordeev and Sergei P. Turgenev developing a working draft suggested the final architectural solution to the facades. Their solution was better, more modern, in the style of enriched Constructivism.

The seven-storied building of the Soviets House in Novosibirsk was to accommodate 15 departments of the Regional Executive Committee and 2000 employees. The building contained 400 offices, 5 small meeting halls and a big meeting hall with the capacity of 400 people. The architects used a simple floor plan: a one-sided corridor with offices in the central part of the building and a two-sided corridor in the left wing. The most important areas were set apart in the center: the amphitheater of the meeting hall attached to the main volume, a vestibule with a cloakroom and a lobby above. In the right wing there were apartments of the Committee employees with a separate staircase. The corridor running through the entire main part of the building ended in staircases lighted up through bay windows with five-story high glazing. The volumetric and spatial composition of the building is determined by city planning peculiarities of the neighborhood. A semi-circular flanking protruding portion visually stops dynamic development of composition of the building located at the relief dip point and accentuates its position along the red line of the prospect. This ensured silhouette expressiveness of the construction and distinguished it in the row of buildings constituting Krasnyi Prospect.

The volume- layout structure and exterior design of the Soviets House in Novosibirsk yield the influence of the Moskow People's Commissariat of Land by Alexei V. Shchusev. The source of «Shchusev's enriched Constructivism» was the architecture of the eminent German expressionist Erich Mendelshon.

Apart from typical Constructivist exposure of frame structure, use of large glass surfaces, lengthy balconies and glass bay- windows, the building also reveals Neoclassic reminiscences, like a three- part vertical division of facades and fragments with axial composition.

The sharp asymmetry of the construction, in general, follows the main axis of the facade exposed by a stained- glass window above the central entrance and by a gallery- rostrum attached to it. A similar composition of the entrance part can be seen in the building of newspaper Pravda, designed by Panteleimon A. Golosov in 1930-1935 in Moscow.

 

Vocabulary

 

a sort of - что-то вроде

 

lower portion - нижняя часть

 

redo (redid) - переделывать, перерабатывать

 

inexpressive - невыразительный

 

working draft - рабочий график

 

meeting hall - зал заседаний

 

to be set apart - выделить(для чего-либо)

 

vestibule -вестибюль

 

lobby - коридор, фойе

 

glazing - остекление

 

staircase - лестница

 

the volumetric and spatial composition - объёмно-пространственная композиция

 

peculiarity - особенность

 

semi-circular flanking protruding portion - полукруглый фланговый выступ-ризалит

 

relief dip point - значительное понижение рельефа

 

yield - добывать, извлекать

 

Commissariat of Land - Наркомат Земледелия

 

apart from - помимо

 

exposure - выявление, выделение

 

bay - window - эркер

 

volume-layout structure- объемно-планировочное решение

 

lengthy balcony-протяженный балкон

 

gallery-rostrum- галлерея-трибуна

 

 

Exercises

 

I. Try to translate the following words without using a dictionary:

Committee, Region, propaganda, socialist, idea, regime, professor, corridor, asymmetry, fragments.

 

II. Define the part of speech of the following words:

Executive, national, rapidly, public, totally, inexpressive, expressiveness, spatial, neighborhood, German.

III. Answer the following questions:

1.When was West-Siberian region with Novosibirsk as a capital city established?

2.Why were new buildings needed?

3.What was a competition organized for?

4.Who was the author of the lower portion of Regional Executive Committee building?

5.Who redid all the facades of the building?

6.How many offices did the building contain?

7.Where were the most important areas set apart?

8.What were there in the right wing of the building?

9.What is the volumetric and spatial composition of the building determined by?

10.What was the source of the «Shchusev's enriched Constructivism»?

11.Where can a similar composition of the entrance part be seen?

IV. Choose the correct preposition:

1. …29 July 1930 the National Executive Committee resolved to establish West-Siberian Region with Novosibirsk as a capital city.

a) in

b) at

c) on

2. New buildings were needed … government bodies, rapidly growing in number.

a) for

b) with

c) to

3. … that time the architecture of public buildings was to become a sort of drive to educate people, propaganda of socialist ideas and embodiment of powerful Soviet regime.

a) on

b) at

c) in

4. But Grinberg's project was not implemented … Novosibirsk.

a) in

b) to

c) from

5. The most important areas were set apart …the center: the amphitheater of the meeting hall attached to the main volume, a vestibule with a cloakroom and a lobby ….

a) to; from

b) in; above

c) for; through

6. The corridor running …the entire main part of the building ended in staircases lighted up through bay windows with five-story high glazing.

a) by

b) across

c) through

7. This ensured silhouette expressiveness of the construction and distinguished it …the row of buildings constituting Krasnyi Prospect.

a) on

b) for

c) in

8. The sharp asymmetry of the construction, in general, follows the main axis of the facade exposed by a stained- glass window … the central entrance and by a gallery- rostrum attached to it.

a) above

b) between

c) under

 

V. Find the false sentences and correct them:

1. On 29 July 1930 the National Executive Committee resolved to establish West-Siberian Region with Tomsk as a capital city.

2. A competition was held for the project of the Industrial Bank.

3. One of the participants was the famous Novosibirsk architect Alexander Z. Grinberg.

4. The lower portion (up to the first floor) was constructed to a design by Andrei Kryachkov.

5. Young architects Boris Gordeev and Sergei Turgenev then reworked the roof plan and totally redid all the window openings.

6. The eight-storied building of the Soviets House in Novosibirsk was to accommodate 20 departments of the Regional Executive Committee and 3000 employees.

7. The most important areas were set apart in the right wing of the building.

8. A rectangular flanking protruding portion visually stops dynamic development of composition of the building.

9. The volume- layout structure and interior design of the Soviets House in Novosibirsk yield the influence of the St. Petersburg People's Commissariat of Land by Alexei V. Shchusev.

VI. Complete the following sentences:

1. New buildings were needed for …, rapidly growing in number.

2. The …was constructed to a design by Andrei Kryachkov.

3. But the facades were … and ….

4. Their solution was better, …, in the style of enriched Constructivism.

5. The architects used a …floor plan.

6. The amphitheater of the meeting hall …to the main volume, a vestibule with a cloakroom and a lobby above.

7. In the right wing there were apartments of the Committee employees with a ….

8. A semi-circular flanking …visually stops dynamic development of composition of the building located at the relief dip point and accentuates its position along the red line of the prospect.

9. Apart from typical Constructivist exposure of frame structure, use of large … surfaces, … balconies and glass bay- windows, the building also reveals Neoclassic reminiscences, like a three- part vertical division of facades and fragments with … composition.

10. The … asymmetry of the construction, in general, follows the main axis of the facade exposed by a … window above the central entrance and by a gallery- rostrum attached to it.

11. A … composition of the entrance part can be seen in the building of newspaper Pravda, designed by Panteleimon A. Golosov in 1930-1935 in Moscow.

 

VII. Translate the following words and expressions from English into Russian:

§ government bodies;

§ embodiment;

§ participant;

§ collaboration;

§ to be implemented;

§ lower portion;

§ to recollect

§ one – sided corridor

§ cloakroom

§ high glazing

§ peculiarity

§ semi – circular

§ axial composition

§ stained glass window

VIII. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English:

1. 29 июля 1930г. Государственный Исполнительный Комитет принял решение учредить Западно-Сибирский регион со столицей в городе Новосибирске.

2.Был организован конкурс на проект для здания Регионального Исполнительного Комитета.

3.Семи-этажное здание дома советов должно было разместить 15 отделов Регионального Исполнительного Комитета и 2000 служащих.

4.Объемно-пространственная композиция здания обусловлена особенностями городской планировки зданий расположенных по соседству.

5.Это обеспечило выразительность очертаний конструкции и выделило его среди других зданий Красного Проспекта.

6.Источником для «обогащенного конструктивизма» Щусева, послужила архитектура выдающегося немецкого экспрессиониста Эриха Мендельсона.

 

IX. Retell the text.

THE SIBERIAN COURT

(Novosibirsk Architectural academy)

 

 

The building for public institutions of Siberia was originally planned with four stories. The first floor was to house public institutions of Siberia, the second floor was to be occupied by the USSR State Bank. In the course of construction it was decided to reduce the building to two stories on the condition of eventual addition of two more stories. People called the building a reinforced concrete house due to its large scale, whiteness of plaster, monumentality and large window openings made possible by the use of an internal reinforced concrete framework. However, overt expression of the building's internal structure was not the architect's purpose. Kryachkov, on the contrary, tried to hide the inner structure behind the heavy eclectic facades. On the corners the protruding portions with bay windows and compass windows in the center confined the main facade. These protruding portions had their own axial composition in the forms of «rationalist Art Nouveau» and were topped with stepped parapets crowned with sculptures.

In the mid 1930s two more stories were added to the building. The Palladian motif of large order was used for the exterior decoration of the building.

The facade was decorated with three-storied pilasters crowned with a high attic and set on the monumental first floor coated with coarse rustics.

Order hypertrophy typical of the «Stalinist Empire» architecture was connected with an attempt to apply to a higher building the traditional Renaissance and Classicist facade order pattern developed for two- and three- storied buildings. Sergei M. Ignatovitch tried to avoid excessive monumentality and heaviness of order, using its flat interpretation and making its canonical proportions lighter.

Vocabulary

 

in the course of construction - в пpоцессе строительства

 

large scale - большой масштаб

 

whiteness of plaster - белизна штукатурки

 

window openings - оконные проёмы

 

overt -очевидный.явный

 

protruding portions - ризалиты

 

bay window -эркер

 

compass window -полукруглый эркер

 

axial composition - осевая композиция

 

to be topped - завершать

 

to be crowned - увенчивать

 

stepped parapets - ступенчатые парапеты

 

coarse -грубый

 

rustics - рустика

 

excessive monumentality - излишняя монументальность

 

canonical proportions -канонические пропорции

 

to house - размещать

 

 

Exercises

 

I. Try to translate the following words without using a dictionary:

Siberia, Bank, structure, eclectic, parapet, motif, order, exterior.

II. Define the part of speech of the following words:

Originally, eventual, addition, whiteness, axial, excessive, heaviness, canonical.

III. Answer the following questions:

1.How many stories was the building for public institutions originally planned with?

2.What was the second floor of the building to be occupied by?

 

3.How did people call this building? Why?

 

4.What did Kryachkov try to do with the inner structure of the building?

 

5.What were protruding portions topped with?

 

6.When were two more stories added to the building?

 

7.What was the façade decorated with?

 

8.What was used for the exterior decoration of the building?

 

9.How did Sergei M. Ignatovitch try to avoid excessive monumentality and heaviness of order?

 

IV. Complete the following sentences:

1. The building for public institutions of Siberia was originally planned with….

 

2. The first floor was to house …of Siberia.

 

3. Kryachkov tried to hide the inner structure behind the ….

 

4. These protruding portions had their own axial composition in the forms of … and were topped with … crowned with….

5. The …was used for the exterior decoration of the building.

6. The facade was decorated with …crowned with … and set on the monumental first floor coated with….

7. Sergei M. Ignatovitch tried to avoid excessive monumentality and heaviness of order, using its … and making its …proportions lighter.

V. Translate the following words and expressions from Russian into English:

§ железобетонный дом;

§ штукатурка;

§ каркас;

§ тяжелые эклектичные фасады;

§ ризалиты;

§ эркер;

§ ступенчатые парапеты;

§ излишняя монументальность.

 

VI. Match the words and their definitions:

1) public institutions; a) on the outside of something;

 

2) monumental; b) including a mixture of many different things or people;

3) internal; c) extremely large, impressive etc.;

4) eclectic; d) according to some law;

 

5) exterior e) provided by local government;

 

6) canonical; f) inside something.

 

VII. Prove the following, using the information from the text:

1. The USSR State Bank was to be located on the second floor.

 

2. The authors of the building didn't want to show the expression of the building's internal structure.

 

3. In the mid 1930-s the building became a four-storied one.

 

4.The sculptures were on the top of the stepped parapets.

 

5. There were used Renaissance and Classicist facades order patterns in the building.

VIII. Retell the text.

St. Nicholas Chapel

Andrei D. Kryachkov, the architect from Tomsk, was the one who implemented this unpaid project of a chapel executed in the manner of old Russian Novgorod and Pskov architecture of the XIV-XV centuries. On 20 July 1914 the building was laid in the middle of Nikolaevsky Prospect to commemorate the 300-year anniversary of the Romanovs' rule. The city architect, Fedor F. Ramman, managed the construction. On 9 November 1929 the Presidium of Novosibirsk Regional Executive Committee made a resolution to close down the chapel. In early 1930 the chapel was demolished.

 

Its place was occupied first by a sculpture of a Komsomolets (Young Communist Leaguer), and later by Stalin's monument. As a legend that appeared in the Soviet and post-Soviet era, the chapel is situated in the geographical center of the Russian Empire. The chapel was reconstructed at a new place and unveiled on 4 June 1993, the year of Novosibirsk's centenary. The reconstruction of the original Kryachkov's chapel by Petr A. Tchernobrovtsev is one of the best architectural projects of Novosibirsk in the 1990s. Tchernobrovtsev had a subtle perception of city planning changes, appropriately changed proportions of the construction, which used to be heavier and more cumbersome in Kryachkov's project.

 

Vocabulary

 

construction-конструкция

 

cumbersome -громоздкий,объемный

 

manage - руководить

 

demolish - сносить

 

unveil -торжественно открывать

 

subtle -тонкий, неуловимый

 

perception -ощущение, восприятие

 

 

Exercises

 

I. Try to translate the following words without using a dictionary:

Manner, sculpture, Presidium, Communist, monument, legend, resolution.

 

II. Define the part of speech of the following words:

Anniversary, Russian, geographical, original, perception, appropriately, early.