Table of contents:
- Why the house was made "laced"
- Difficult tenants and a semblance of modesty
- Is it comfortable to live in an "accordion"
- They should have been built a lot
Video: "Openwork House" on Leningradka: Why the project of typical "lace" high-rise buildings was never implemented in Moscow
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
This unique residential building on Leningradsky Prospekt is famous for its "openwork" - it seems to be covered with intricate lace. Moreover, the scale of these decorations is impressive, because the building is six-story, majestic. It is also one of the very first block houses in Moscow. It's just a pity that after its construction such interesting "block-lace" buildings were no longer made in the city.
Why the house was made "laced"
The U-shaped "openwork house" appeared here in 1940 as part of the construction of a series of large-block buildings erected in those years in different parts of Moscow (for example, on Bolshaya Polyanka). The house was designed as part of the general plan for the reconstruction of the city, its main facade was supposed to overlook the square and look majestic and spectacular. The project was entrusted to architects A. Burov and B. Blokhin.
There is an assumption that Andrei Burov, as a student of the famous Moscow architect Ivan Zholtovsky, when creating the project, took the work of his teacher as a reference point - the House of the Racing Society, located nearby, on Begovaya Street. By the way, there are statues of horses next to the "Openwork House".
The style of the six-story "lace" house, the decorative elements of which send us back to the Art Nouveau era, is very well combined with the building of the famous "Pre-revolutionary restaurant Yar", which is also located nearby.
Architect Andrey Burov was a multifaceted person (he tried himself not only in the construction field) and very creative, so the building simply could not turn out to be standard.
Due to the fact that the block facades of the new building turned out to be very intricate (some are made to resemble marble and look like pilasters, others close the loggias with decorative lattices in the form of plants, and so on), the house was immediately dubbed by the people as "openwork" or "lace".
And the nickname "Accordion House" was also attached to this six-story building. After all, the decorative blocks of the front facade (the author of the sketches is the artist V. A. Favorsky), grouped in pairs, as well as the very alternation of windows and loggias, really make the building look like this musical instrument, which is usually also decorated with openwork gratings and in the same way as the facades of this house often have beautiful streaks. This similarity is especially noticeable when you look at the house from a great distance.
Window openings are also interesting: they are closed with forged twisted fences, which also look decorative and original and somewhat resemble French balconies.
The idea of the interior layout of a multi-storey building, which is designed according to the principle of apartments, was spied on by the architect Burov during his business trip to the United States. Compact apartments with combined bathrooms, mini-kitchens and tiny hallways (as you know, it was not customary to make them large in Soviet times) are located on the sides of a long wide corridor. There is only one entrance to the house, but there are as many as 18 apartments on each floor. And there are two elevators.
From his trip to America, the architect also drew an idea for the first floor: it was designed as non-residential, placing shops, a dining room and other similar organizations inside, which were supposed to make life easier for Soviet citizens.
Difficult tenants and a semblance of modesty
From the first days, the house began to be considered a nomenclature. It was populated mainly by high-ranking officials, most of whom were high-ranking military personnel. Representatives of the Soviet cultural elite also lived in it - for example, the actress Serova and the writer Simonov. And although the apartments in the building were not so luxurious, it was nevertheless more convenient and more prestigious to live here than in modest typical high-rise buildings. In other words, although the builders followed the external "rules of decency" (they say, all apartments are "Soviet", the same, no frills), at the same time it was immediately clear that this housing is like everyone else's, but not quite.
After World War II, many apartments in the building turned into communal apartments, and the contingent gradually began to change: many ordinary, non-privileged tenants appeared.
Well, the modern generation, moving into this monument of Soviet architecture, makes a new-fashioned design in the apartments and few of the tenants try to preserve the original, colorful interior. "Grandma's" apartments of the XX century with their touching charm are gradually and irrevocably receding into the past.
Is it comfortable to live in an "accordion"
The twisted lattices that adorn the loggias on the "front" side of the building advantageously cover the rubbish that citizens like to put on the balconies so much. And the "curls" that cover the outside of the kitchen windows of the apartments hide the "exoticism" of Soviet life from prying eyes.
The presence of this unusual decor, which the owners of the apartments can be proud of, makes up for (in a bad sense) the dirty air and dust that rises from the roadway. Residents, whose windows overlook the courtyard, were a little more fortunate - there is less soot on the windowsills and the noise of cars is not so audible. But the center is just a stone's throw away, there are no problems with public transport, and the area is prestigious.
The apartments in the house are really modest (especially by modern standards), but the entrance, corridors and stairwells look just royally - they are very spacious.
There are three staircases in the front door. The entrance area is more suitable for an institution than for a residential building. Moreover, there are no internal architectural decorations such as stucco moldings - just bare walls.
The building itself is gradually collapsing. Old-timers say that materials of not very good quality were allegedly used during its construction. Still, the house still looks very beautiful from the street, and photographers and film crews often visit it.
They should have been built a lot
By the way, the "accordion" on Leningradka was not supposed to be the only "openwork" residential building. Initially, it was planned to build in Moscow many such richly decorated block houses, with a large number of apartments.
However, soon after the construction of the first building, the Great Patriotic War began, and after the war there was no time for such "lordship". The authorities considered the cheap and easy-to-build Khrushchev buildings to be more relevant. Large-block residential buildings were replaced by faceless panel houses.
Another (though not so beautiful and pretentious) project of typical housing was also abandoned, leaving only one example of such a house, which was nicknamed for its gloom "Tear of Socialism"
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