A number of buildings in Ekaterinburg have preserved their original shape. Most of them were built in the period of Constructivism, in the 1920’s-1930’s.

Constructivism is a Soviet avant-garde style of art and architecture. Its main features are strict geometrical forms, and functionality.

Such a boom of modern architecture in Ekaterinburg resulted from the rapid growth of industry and building in the young Soviet republic, in the early 1920’s. With its enormous natural resources and metallurgical technologies, and with two-hundred-year history, the Ural Region became an industrial center with its capital in Sverdlovsk (Soviet name for Ekaterinburg from 1924 to 1991).

But why did this short period leave such a mark on the architecture of the city?

10-storey building of the Iset Hotel. Soviet time. Photo by 1723.ru

Vladimir Mayakovsky, a famous Soviet poet, visited Sverdlovsk and called it “the city of half-skyscrapers”.

Indeed, the first multi-storeyed building in the Ural Region was built at 12, Vosmogo Marta Ulitsa (12 floors). Soon after other high, for those days, buildings on Prospect Lenina and Ulitsa Sheikmana were built.

But it is not just about the height of the buildings built in that period. The main feature of the Soviet constructivist style is that whole residential areas were erected. Nowhere else had such an experiment ever happened. Community houses were built, and they were very functional. Without leaving the area, people could take a child to the kindergarten, have lunch or bring food home and warm it up (that is why there are no kitchens in many houses), go to the club, to the library or to the local hospital.

The idea of “new living standards” was primary in the architectural design. Sverdlovsk became a probing ground to put new ideas into life.

For this reason, professional architects were summoned. The graduating students of Saint-Petersburg Academy of Arts, and the Architectural Department of Tomsk Polytechnic University arrived in the city.

New functional tasks and ideas required new technical and artistic decisions. New architectural styles were born at the turn of the centuries. And the constructivist architecture stands as a shining example of it.

Community house on Prospect Lenina - one of the examples of Constructivism style. Photo by Kypm @ E1

Here are several examples:

• Dynamo Sports Center
Dynamo sports center on the city pond (architect V. Sokolov, 1931-1932). The building of a ship with captain’s bridge, decks, and portholes on the stern made terrestrial Sverdlovsk look like a port. The Dynamo sports center is a landmark of the historic downtown area of the city.

• The “Che-Ka City” (Gorodok Chekistov)
CHE-KA – Soviet security organization, set up in 1917 under the Soviet regime, for the investigation of counter revolutionary activities. Gorodok Ckekistov (architects I. Antonov, V. Sokolov, A. Tumbasov, 1929-1936) includes apartment buildings for small families and the hotel Iset built in the shape of sickle and hammer, the famous Soviet symbol. It made quite an impression on the world-known architect Kisho Kurokava who visited Ekaterinburg. He could hardly believe that such a grand building complex appeared in the 1930’s somewhere at the heart of Russia, in the Urals. The building of the hotel is well known. Leonid Smirnov, professor of Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts, devoted a lot of time to learning about this period. He says that a stamp with the picture of this building was issued in the Republican Spain. Many people in Finland associate the Ural Region with the hotel Iset, partly because its architect, I. Antonov, after graduation from Saint-Petersburg Academy of Arts, lived and worked in Finland.

• Central post office
The central post office – Dom Svyazy (architect K. Solomonov, 1934) was built in the shape of a tractor. This landmark is situated on the main avenue of the city.

The central post office building, situated on Prospect Lenina in the very heart of Ekaterinburg. Photo by Kypm @ E1

• The building of the shopping mall City Center
The building of the shopping mall City Center (architect Ya. Kornfeld, 1929-1930), used to serve, first, as the builders’ club, and later as the film studio. Together with the “Cheka City” (Gorodok Chekistov), it makes an architectural ensemble situated at the intersection of two main streets of the city, Prospect Lenina and Ulitsa Lunacharskogo.

These are a few examples of avant-garde architecture of the 1920-1930’s. They create our city’s face and look modern, even if compared to present-day architectural styles.

The most difficult task for architecture is to withstand the test of time. Time can damage engineering materials.

Numerous publications in Russia and abroad, new books, photo albums, exhibitions, international conferences and seminars show growing interest in this architectural style. Our city boasts unique examples of constructivist architecture.

Today the challenge is to preserve and renovate the landmarks of our city.

House on Ulitsa Lunacharskogo, the part of the “Cheka City”. Photo by Kypm @ E1

Only then may Ekaterinburg claim to be the capital of the Russian avant-garde style of the 1920-1930’s.