Pulkovo Airport Terminal in Leningrad is a Masterpiece of Domestic Modernism

Abstract

This article is devoted to the Pulkovo airport terminal complex in Leningrad – Saint-Petersburg. The article offers comprehensive research on the architectural project (the project leader A.V. Zhuk) and its implementation as an architectural phenomenon in a sociocultural context. The research methodology is based on historical, chronological, structural, functional, and semiotic approaches. Based on historical and cultural analysis of the transformation and improvement of the project during the period of its realisation, the article shows a few innovative functions of the airport, besides its primary technological function, such as: representative function; memorial function, preserving results of the creative team's work and builders work; artistic function within the ensemble perception of the project. The article also shows the project's dynamic of development and enhancement throughout fulfilled work on it. The article illustrates the design solutions embodied in full in the construction, reflects the scale of construction and improvement of professional methods and techniques. The author also reviewed and analysed texts and documents contemporary to the architectural conception and its implementation. Based on the research, the author makes a conclusion about the Pulkovo airport being an object, perfect by its function and artistic image, representing a synthesis of innovative methods, taking landscape features into account, and translating the author's cultural experience. The relevance of the preservation of the airport is related to its characteristics, which are unique for world architecture and Saint-Petersburg's environment. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the statement about the building of Pulkovo airport being a perfect example of an embodiment of rationalism ideas in conjunction with the creation of vivid artistic imagery. Also, the thesis is presented, about the creative team successfully combining bold technological innovations with a humanistic focus of the functional object.