OSA Group

OSA Group
Cover of SA, 1927

The OSA Group (Organization 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.[1] It published the journal SA (Sovremmennaia Arkhitektura or 'Contemporary Architecture').

Contents

Contemporary architecture

Design for a Dom Kommuny', 1929, in SA

Like the ASNOVA group, OSA grew out of the avant-garde wing of the VKhUTEMAS school in Moscow. The group's founders were Moisei Ginzburg, well-known for his book Style and Epoch (a Soviet response to Le Corbusier's Vers une Architecture) and the painter, designer and architect Alexander Vesnin. Unlike the earlier association the OSA group claimed for itself the name Constructivist, in that it was, in its utilitarianism and concentration on function rather than form, an architectural equivalent to the experiments of 'artistic' Constructivism. OSA was in many ways the architectural wing of the socialist Modernists of LEF, and likewise set up its own journal in 1926.

Lydia Komarova, Comintern Headquarters, 1927

Until its closure in 1930, SA would publish articles on a variety of subjects, including a symposium on flat roofs, a special issue on colour in architecture, and discussions of Le Corbusier, the Bauhaus, Fernand Léger, and Kasimir Malevich (who was also a contributor to the journal). The design was mainly by Alexei Gan, who also designed the distinctive grid pattern of the covers. Photography was occasionally by Alexander Rodchenko. As well as publishing on the built projects of Modernism, the journal published experimental projects by VKhUTEMAS students such as Lydia Komarova's Comintern project, the strange pod houses of Sokolov, and the works of Ivan Leonidov. Articles in the journal was mainly in Russian, though occasionally parts of it were in German, highlighting the group's affinities with the Neues Bauen, although no OSA architects were invited to contribute to the Weissenhof Estate. The group was, however, the Soviet counterpart of Der Ring in Germany: agitating for Modern architecture and construction methods, and polemicising against the Classicism and Eclecticism that would eventually coalesce into Stalinist architecture.

OSA activities

Boris Velikovsky with Barsch, Gaken et al., Gostorg Building, 1926

There are several examples of built works designed by OSA members in the USSR. These include Moisei Ginzburg's apartment blocks (on Gogolsky Boulevard, Moscow, another in Sverdlovsk, and most famously the Gostrakh and Narkomfin buildings); the 1920s-'30s work of the Vesnin brothers such as the Likhachev Palace of Culture and the Mostorg department store in Moscow, and the Ivanovo bank and DneproGES power station; works by Mikhail Barsch, such as Moscow Planetarium (with Sinyakvsky) and the Gostorg office block (as part of a team headed by Boris Velikovsky); works by Ivan Nikolaev, such as the electrical-technical complex in Moscow (with Fissenko; this work was featured in MOMA's 1932 International Style exhibition) and the large collective house for the students in Moscow; and the workers' housing designed by Alexander Nikolsky in Tractor Street, Leningrad.

The OSA group's leading theorists were members of the CIAM from 1928 until 1933, with Ginzburg and Nikolai Kolli members of its secretariat, CIRPAC. A small CIAM meeting with the OSA group was held in Moscow in 1932, with Sigfried Giedion and Cornelius van Eesteren in attendance. Sergei Eisenstein's The General Line featured specially built buildings by OSA's Andrey Burov. The utopian projects of Ivan Leonidov were first published in SA, and their technologically advanced, fantastic nature led to harsh criticisms from the VOPRA group of Arkady Mordvinov and Karo Alabian, coining the phrase 'Leonidovism' to attack this 'Western' group: in a 1929 editorial SA trenchantly defended Leonidov, but this was a sign of what was to come, with Mikhail Barsch being targeted in an 'anti-bourgeois' campaign at VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN.

From collective houses to disurbanism

OSA Plan for Magnitogorsk in SA, 1930

OSA took an avant-garde position with respect to urban planning as well as architecture, one that sometimes differed from the position of the Communist Party.[2] In 1926-29 they were active in propagandising collective houses and pioneered the notion of the social condenser. OSA architects were employed by the state to develop a standard for apartment buildings (the Stroikom apartments) for the purposes of mass production. However by 1929 there was a shift in the group's theory away from collective city blocks to 'disurbanism', perhaps influenced by the brutalities of forced collectivisation in the Soviet countryside. Mikhail Okhitovich's theories of using telecommunications, roads and infrastructure to create diffuse, semi-rural cities were published in SA, and the group's proposals for the new town of Magnitogorsk were produced with his input, only to be defeated by Ernst May of Der Ring. The 1930 debate over 'disurbanism' saw the OSA leadership (particularly Ginzburg) throw itself behind the theory, which had dire consequences when the movement was condemned by a Politburo statement. The journal was wound up in 1930, and OSA briefly became SASS (Section of Architects for Socialist Construction) before being merged into the state architecture union. The group's members continued to practice in a Modernist fashion until 1934 and the official ushering in of Socialist Realism. Most OSA members survived the great purge, with the exceptions of Alexei Gan and Mikhail Okhitovich, who were both murdered.

With the general rehabilitation of Modernism in the 1960s the issues of SA were reprinted, after decades of suppression.

Some OSA Members and other contributors to SA

See also

  • Soviet urban planning ideologies of the 1920s

References

  1. ^ Dr Harry Francis Mallgrave, Modern Architectural Theory: a historical survey, 1673-1968 p240 (Cambridge University Press, 2005) ISBN 0521793068
  2. ^ Alan Colquhoun, Modern Architecture p133 (Oxford University Press, 2002) ISBN 0192842269
  • Catherine Cooke, Russian Avant-Garde - Theories of Architecture, Urbanism and the City (Academy Editions, 1995) ISBN 1-85490390X
  • Hugh D Hudson, Blueprints and Blood
  • Selim Khan-Magomedov, Pioneers of Soviet Architecture
  • Anatole Kopp, Town and Revolution
  • Eric Mumford, The CIAM discourse on Urbanism
  • Frederick Starr, 'Visionary Town Planning' in Cultural Revolution in Russia 1928-31 (ed Sheila Fitzpatrick)

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Osa — may refer to: Osa peninsula, a peninsula in Costa Rica Osa, Allahabad, a village in Allahabad, India Osa, Warmian Masurian Voivodeship (north Poland) Osa, Russia, name of several inhabited localities in Russia Osa class missile boat 9K33 Osa (SA… …   Wikipedia

  • Osa-Klasse — Übersicht Typ Schnellboot Einheiten Osa I: 140 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Group method of data handling — (GMDH) is a family of inductive algorithms for computer based mathematical modeling of multi parametric datasets that features fully automatic structural and parametric optimization of models. GMDH is used in such fields as data mining, knowledge …   Wikipedia

  • OSA Fellow — The OSA Fellow, of the Optical Society of America, is a membership designation.[1] The bylaws of this society only allow 10% of its membership to be designated as an OSA Fellow. The OSA Fellow is peer group nomination. The nominee An OSA member… …   Wikipedia

  • 9K33 Osa — SA 8 redirects here. For the Apollo flight, see A 104 (SA 8). 9K33 Osa (NATO reporting name: SA 8 Gecko) 9K33 OSA transporter erector launcher and radar(TELAR) …   Wikipedia

  • 9K33 Osa — SA 8 SA 8 Grunddaten Funktion Flugabwehrrakete Hersteller NII 20 Forschungsinstitut Entwicklung …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • 9K33 Osa — SA 8, Gecko 9K33 Osa Présentation Fonction missile sol air à courte portée Déploiement Opération Paix en Galilée, Guerre du Golfe (1990 1991) …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Asociación estelar de la Osa Mayor — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda La Asociación estelar de la Osa Mayor es la asociación estelar más cercana a la Tierra, es decir, un grupo de estrellas con velocidades similares en el espacio, que se cree tienen un origen común. Su núcleo está a… …   Wikipedia Español

  • JavaScript OSA — JavaScript OSA, (originally JavaScript for OSA , abbreviated as JSOSA ), is a freeware inter process communication scripting language for the Macintosh computer.JavaScript OSA uses the core language of the Mozilla implementation of the JavaScript …   Wikipedia

  • Constructivist architecture — Narkomtiazhprom, Vesnin brothers, 1934 Constructivist architecture was a form of modern architecture that flourished in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. It combined advanced technology and engineering with an avowedly Communist… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”