Reshaping Russian Architecture: Western Technology, Utopian Dreams (Woodrow Wilson Center Press) - Tapa dura

"Reshaping Russian Architecture is something of an eclectic introduction to a fascinating topic. Well-illustrated, beautifully produced, it is to be welcomed as a substantial contribution to our appreciation of the architectural history of the city in Russia and the Soviet Union." James H. Bater, Canadian Slavonic Review

Reshaping Russian Architecture examines the development of twentieth-century Russian architecture as it relates to the transformation of the imperial Russia into an industrialised Soviet empire and shows how Western notions of style and technology were assimilated on a massive scale into a uniquely Russian vision. Among the issues examined in articles by four distinguished historians of architecture and urban planning are: the decline of imperial architectural design during the mid-nineteenth century as occasioned by fundamental changes in aesthetic values and the social structure; the denouncement of the European capitalist economic system and consequent rejection of modern urban architecture during the period immediately prior to the 1917 revolution; and utopian concepts of modern urban design that were implemented during the interwar years of phenomenal industrial development. An important contribution to our understanding of Russian and Soviet culture in a critical period of its evolution, Reshaping Russian Architecture will also appeal to those interested in modern architecture and urban planning in general.