Moisei Ginzburg's Narkomfin Communal House in Moscow: Contesting the Social and Material World

Abstract

Constructivist projects are usually discussed as art objects divorced from their social context and physical surroundings. Rarely are the Constructivist landscape and site planning ever discussed. This article examines Moisei Ginzburg's Narkomfin Communal House in Moscow (1928-1929) and its associated structures as they developed in architectural writings and then were constructed, modified and lived in through the Soviet period. Archival site plans are examined that situate the Narkomfin as an element in a Constructivist landscape.