The Melnikov House - Icon of the Avant-Garde, Family Home, Architecture Museum

The Melnikov House is a world-famous icon of Russian Constructivism, a masterpiece of Modernism. Konstantin Melnikov built this house for himself and his family between 1927 and 1929 – as an experiment to test his concept of mass construction for residential settlements. The unmistakable double-cylindrical shape, the refined lighting regulated by honeycomb-like windows, a sophisticated climate control system and many other original elements make this building still innovative today; it is open to visitors since last year.

This book, The Melnikow House, gives a detailed account of the creation of this residential and studio house in the heart of Moscow, and its partly adventurous history through the twentieth century to the present. The publication presents the house in its current condition, and during its transitional state from residential dwelling to museum – the State Shchusev Museum of Architecture redesigned the building as a walkable monument. Pavel Kuznetsov, director of the State Museum of Konstantin and Viktor Melnikov and author of this book, writes about the challenges and choices of transforming the house into a museum, for to this day it has not yet been fully researched and restored. Many objects from the house are closely linked to the professional and family life of the architect; they are published for the first time in this book, as well as documents providing insight into the technical concept of the building as well as other projects of this exceptional architect – an architect who could not implement and further develop his visions and ideas.

The house was closed to the public for a long time; it has only recently been accessible as a museum, with a few visitors allowed in every day. This book gives readers the opportunity, thanks to a plethora of archival material and numerous current photographs, to get a detailed and in-depth look at an unusual house, which up to now still contains many riddles.

Pavel Kuznetsov
The Melnikov House
Icon of the Avant-Garde, Family Home,
Architecture Museum
With photographs by Denis Esakov
210 x 230 mm, 192 pages
200 pictures, softcover
ISBN 978-3-86922-436-7 (English)
May 2017. DOM publishers, Berlin

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This release was published on openPR.