[VARVARA STEPANOVA – LAST JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURAL AVANT-GARDE] Sovetskaia arkhitektura [Soviet Architecture], no. 3.

Moscow: OGIZ, 1931. Quarto (30.5 × 22 cm). Original printed wrappers; 68, [1] pp. Illustrations including photoraphs, renderings, technical drawings, and elevations. Light soil and rubbing to wrappers; spine chipped at extremities; else about very good. Item #54829

Single issue of a short-lived bi-monthly journal that served as the central debating ground of independent and avant-garde Soviet architecture groups such as VOPR, ASNOVA, SASS, and ARU before all groups were disbanded. The wrapper design for the journal is by the avant-garde artist Varvara Stepanova. The journal came to replace the famous Constructivist journal CA (Contemporary Architecture; 1926–1930), with fifteen volumes published in total in 1931–1934 (including double issues). The introductory essay to the first issue stated: “The magazine 'Soviet Architecture' for the first time in the USSR gives the opportunity to all advanced architectural organizations to express their views and discuss their practice. At the same time, the magazine reserves the right to criticize their platforms and practices from the point of view of dialectical materialism. The journal also aims to cover not only formalized architectural organizations, but also those cadres who are not part of these organizations.” The present issue includes articles by Aleksei Mikhailov on the five years of the CA journal, an article on Le Corbusier by David Arkin, as well as articles by representatives of the Sector of Architects of Socialist Construction (SASS), the Society of Architects Urbanists (ARU), the Association of New Architects (ASNOVA), and the All-Union Society of Proletarian Architects (VOPRA). The journal ceased publication in connection with the launch of “Architecture of the USSR” (Arkhitektura SSSR; 1933–1992, Organ of the State Committee for Civil Engineering and Architecture under the USSR Gosstroi and the Union of Architects of the USSR).

As of February 2025, KVK, OCLC show two complete runs in North America and scattered issues at five institutions.

Price: €350.00

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