Mikhail Posokhin
Mikhail Vasilyevich Posokhin was a Soviet, Russian architect and teacher. People's Architect of the USSR. Laureate of the Lenin Prize, State Prize of the USSR and Stalin Prize of the second degree. He is mostly known for being Chief Architect of Moscow. Among his main completed projects are a high-rise residential building on Kudrinskaya Square and the development of New Arbat Avenue in Moscow. He served as a member of the Union of Architects of the USSR. Full member of the USSR Academy of Arts, member of the Presidium, academician-secretary of the Department of Architecture and Monumental Art of the USSR Academy of Arts. Corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Architecture, Academy of Construction and Architecture.
Biography
Early life
Born on November 30, 1910 in Tomsk. His parents, Vasily Mikhailovich and Maria Alexandrovna, belonged to the educated philistines. His father worked in a printing house while his mother worked in a library.After graduating from high school in 1927, he enrolled as a student at the Siberian Technological Institute, at the same time attended the creative studio of the artist Vadim Mizerov and worked as an apprentice decorator at the Tomsk Drama Theater.
Soon he moved to Kuznetsk-Sibirsky and began working on the construction of the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant. Then he entered the Kuznetskstroy Training Center and in 1931 received a diploma in civil engineering. He moved to the design department of the institution, where he took part in the creation of a “socialist city”.
In 1935, he moved to Moscow to enter the workshop of Alexey Shchusev at the Moscow Architectural Institute, and graduated from the university as an external student in three years. During his studies, he met the young architect Ashot Mndoyants, who became his friend and colleague for many years. According to the memoirs of Mikhail Posokhin, even many years after they met, the two architects "worked all day in the studio, then walked home from work together, continuing to discuss new ideas along the way, most often they came to us, had dinner, drank tea, and then on the vacant table, and often they laid out tracing paper and paper on the floor and continued to work, search, discuss, sketch". In the late 1930s, their first joint projects were presented at competitions at the air terminal in Moscow and the theater in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
After the start of the war, he was assigned to an engineering reconnaissance company of a Civil Defense unit, which was engaged in the construction of camouflage structures and the prompt restoration of destroyed buildings. However, already in 1943, the young architect was attracted to cooperation by Dmitry Chechulin, who at that time was in charge of the reconstruction of the Mossovet building on Gorky Street. At the same time, Posokhin and Mndoyants were entrusted with the reconstruction of the building of the former Alexander School on Frunze Street, which was to house the General Staff of the Red Army. Work on the first independent project was completed in 1946. The building received typical features of the new Stalinist Empire style.
In 1946, he headed one of the design workshops of the Moscow City Council. Two years later, he and Mndoyants won a competition to create a Stalinist high-rise - a 24-story residential skyscraper on Vosstaniya Square. The facades of the building were decorated with elements characteristic of the Stalinist Empire style: sculptural groups, colonnades, pilasters and the spire crowning the building. Numerous innovative solutions were used in the residential building, which was unusual by Soviet standards. On the lower floors there was a two-hall cinema "Plamya", a laundry, and the largest grocery store in the USSR "Gastronom". The building also had underground parking for 134 cars. The unique building received an individual layout, expensive finishing and equipment. In particular, 28 four-room apartments were built in the house. In all apartments, the kitchens were equipped with refrigerators, built-in furniture, sinks with a crusher for the destruction of large waste, and access to a garbage chute was provided.
Posokhin wrote about the work on this building in his memoirs "Roads of Life". Among other things, he noted the fact that architects were categorically forbidden to use foreign magazines in order to avoid copying the techniques of Western masters. In 1949, the architect was awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree for the completed project.
Typical residential development
He was interested not only in the creation of outstanding structures - he was one of the first architects in the USSR to develop and implement projects for large-panel buildings. In his book, published in 1953, he explained in detail the new principles of residential construction. He emphasized that for the rapid construction of new residential areas on the outskirts of the capital, “all-out industrialization is necessary... based on the typification and widespread use of structures, architectural details, elements of factory-made sanitary and engineering equipment.” The master believed that it was necessary to design new frame houses taking into account the future placement of shops, children's educational institutions and entertainment organizations on the ground floors. Builders should also think about decorating the rear facades and organizing the courtyard space.He managed to realize his vision during the construction of four-story houses on Khoroshevskoye Highway. Work on the site began in 1948. This was the first experience in Soviet history of complex development of a residential area with panel-frame buildings. The next complex built was ten-story buildings on Kuusinen Street, the design of which was proposed back in 1953. The principles of residential housing construction that the architect promoted were close to the views of Nikita Khrushchev. Thanks to this, he avoided the accusations of “embellishment” that the leadership of the CPSU leveled against Soviet architects in the mid-1950s.
Iconic projects of the 1950s
In the mid-1950s, the main facade of the Moscow Hermitage Theatre was rebuilt according to his design. The Art Nouveau building received a fundamentally new appearance in the style of the Stalinist Empire style. To the small building, previously practically devoid of expressive decorative elements, two outbuildings connected by a colonnade were added.On September 7, 1953, a decree of the CPSU Central Committee and the USSR Council of Ministers "On the construction of the Pantheon" was published, where it was planned to transfer the remains of those buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis and in the Lenin's Mausoleum. 10 major architects of the USSR were allowed to participate in the closed competition, including Posokhin. The presented projects were published in September of the following year in the magazine "Architecture of the USSR". As a starting point, all the contestants chose an antique temple with a colonnade, which was consistent with the principles of the "Stalinist Empire style". However, already on November 1, 1954, Nikita Khrushchev began to fight against "decoration", which excluded the possibility of developing pompous Stalinist architecture in general and the Pantheon project in particular.
In the second half of the 1950s, a closed competition was held for the design of the Palace of the Soviets. Although the architect was not among the participants, he managed to build the Kremlin Palace of Congresses - the most outstanding building of the 1960s. In his project, he used the motifs proposed by Aleksandr Vlasov and Ivan Zholtovsky for the Palace of the Soviets. The central core of the building consisted of the Meeting Hall and Banquet Hall, designed for 6,000 and 4,500 people respectively. These rooms are surrounded on three sides by the interconnected spaces of the foyer and corridors. He implemented a similar layout of premises in the project of the Oktyabr cinema, which was created in the complex development of Kalinin Avenue.
The construction of the minimalist Palace of Congresses with the idea of opening the internal space to the outside served as a reflection of the new architecture of the Khrushchev Thaw. In order to erect a huge building, it was necessary to destroy part of the historical buildings of the Kremlin. The architect and his colleagues tried to harmoniously fit the huge parallelepiped into the existing architectural ensemble. For this purpose, it was necessary to deepen the lower level of the hall and vestibule by 15 m. The building was put into operation already in 1961, and a year later he was awarded the Lenin Prize for the implementation of the project.
Chief Architect of Moscow
Development of Kalinin Avenue
In 1960, Mikhail Posokhin headed the Architectural and Planning Department of Moscow. During his tenure in office, the architectural appearance of the capital changed radically. The first major construction project he initiated was the new Kalinin Avenue. After completion of work in 1962, the highway became the embodiment of the ideas of the Soviet government on the development of domestic architecture.The original plan included many innovative solutions. The highway had to pass below the surface of the earth, and numerous pedestrian bridges had to be laid over it. The 26-story high-rise buildings on the southern part of the avenue were one huge commune, connected by a common two-story stylobate, in which it was proposed to create entertainment facilities. According to the original plan, these houses were designed exclusively for small-sized apartments for young families. During the implementation of the plan, numerous changes were made to the project. At the request of Nikita Khrushchev, a regular road surface was laid, which is why the complexes of the northern and southern parts of the avenue turned out to be separate. In 1964, with the coming to power of the new government, offices were created in the southern buildings instead of apartments.
In the early 1970s, in the book “A City for Man,” the architect wrote:
The new avenue became an important milestone in the development of standard construction as a clear example of the expressive effect of alternating high-rise and low-rise buildings. However, a holistic perception of the complex is only possible when driving a car. For a pedestrian, the rhythmic composition looks too enlarged and monotonous. Although the construction of Kalinin Avenue was part of the transformation of Moscow from an old city into a modern metropolis, the destruction of ancient buildings and the creation of high-rise buildings in the historical center caused criticism from the cultural community.
His next significant work was the complex of the Comecon buildings. The main building, 31 floors high, received an original shape in the form of two curved plates connected by a rectangular volume. A similar technique logically developed the ideas for the development of New Arbat. In this case, a smooth curve diluted the monotony of the corridors and provided the viewer from the outside with a comfortable glare of the glass surface.