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[A POST-WWII BOOK ON SOVIET SCHOOL BUILDINGS WITH MULTIPLE ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS] Arkhitektura i konstruktsii shkol’nykh zdaniy: Sbornik materialov po proyektirovaniyu i stroitel’stvu [i.e. Architecture and Design of School Buildings: Collection of Materials on Design and Construction]

Item #2394

Gos. izd-vo lit. po stroitel’stvu i arkhitekture, 1954. 210 pp.: ill. 26,6x20,8 cm. Original quarter cloth binding. Edges slightly worn, but otherwise near fine.

First edition. 1 of 6,000 copies. Text in Russian. Edited by the Soviet architects Nikolay Kolli (1894-1966) and Veniamin Bykov (1911-1981). Kolli was a Russian architectural functionary and a famous city planner. Initially a Modernist—Constructivist architect, he later adopted socialist realism. A comprehensive Stalin-era compendium on the ideologically driven design of school buildings, featuring numerous diagrams, tables, and illustrations of both completed and planned projects in Moscow and Leningrad from the 1930s to the 1950s. The book documents the nationwide expansion of school construction in the 1940s Soviet Union, advertising the country’s swift postwar recovery. The transition from seven-year to universal secondary education in major cities necessitated a revision of existing designs and an increase in school building capacities. To address these demands, the USSR Academy of Architecture’s Institute of Public and Industrial Buildings led the development of standardized school projects, publishing this work as a guide for fellow architects and engineers.

The edition is divided into three sections and features twelve articles by notable Soviet architects, including V. Bykov, G. Platonov, and P. Ivanovsky. The book consolidates the experience of designing and constructing large-capacity standardized school buildings, addressing topics such as the layout, size, and equipment of main rooms and school grounds, as well as issues of insulation, lighting, and sanitary facilities. The authors compare early Soviet school buildings from the mid-1930s to the 1940s, offering a sharp
critique of the initial designs. As one article notably remarks, «The architecture of many school buildings from this period bears the mark of monotonous uniformity, foreign to the image of the Soviet school. The artistic expressiveness inherent in constructivism could not contribute to creating a true artistic representation reflecting the ideological essence of the Soviet school.» Among the criticized designs are School #201 of Heroes Zoya and Alexander Kosmodemyansky (designed by I. Zvezdin in 1933-1935; later
reconstructed with no original elements preserved) and School No. 315 in Moscow (by I. Bezrukov in 1935; also lost its original structure).

The edition includes over a hundred rare black-andwhite illustrations, offering a glimpse into the early pre- and post-war Soviet school buildings. The images depict both interior and exterior elements, such as assembly halls, classrooms, and teachers’ rooms, of notable schools like former School 135 (on Bolshoi Gnezdnikovsky Lane, which, according to Russian art critic Anastasiya Solovyeva, was later transferred to the Higher School of Economics, with only a few original stairs preserved), School 179 (designed by L. A. Stepanova), School #447 (relocated to a new building after a district reconstruction, but the original structure still stands today), the now non-existent School 665 (1st Izvoznaia), and School #201 of Heroes Zoya and Alexander Kosmodemyansky (designed by I. Zvezdin in 1933-1935 and later reconstructed without preserving the original elements).

Worldcat shows copies of the edition at Harvard University, Princeton University Library, and University of Michigan.

Price: $750.00