Dediukhin Editor (2 results)

Moscow: Mossovet, 1934-1936. Quartos (29 × 22 cm). Ten volumes in original printed card wrappers, numbered 1-12 (with vols. 8 and 9 never printed and thus complete); ca. 80 pp per volume, with numerous illustrations (some in color) including photographs, plans, maps, and technical drawings. Vols. 4-12 in original embossed cloth portfolio, with front flap detached. Missing portfolio for vols. 1-3, as well as the booklet with introductory article and a booklet containing the index. Title pages, table of contents, titles, and annotations to illustrations in Russian and French. Light soil to wrappers, rust to staples. The individual volumes about very good. A richly illustrated ten-volume set (all published) showcasing the work of the Architectural and Design Workshops of Mossovet, formed in 1933 as part of the plan for the reconstruction of Moscow. Each volume is focused on the work of one of the ten workshops headed by a prominent architect: I. V. Zholtovskii (N1), A. V. Shchusev (N2), I. A. Fomin (N3), I. A. Golosov (N4), D. F. Fridman (N5), N. Ia. Kolli (N6), K. S. Mel'nikov (N7), V. D. Kokorin (N10), M. V. Kriukov (N11), and N. G. Borov (N12). Each volume presents a variety of projects for administrative and residential buildings, hospitals, summer camps, palaces of culture, designs of Moscow metro stations, and interiors of the building which housed the newspaper Pravda, with most of the projects created or completed in 1934. Published at a crucial moment when the Soviet establishment was moving away from Constructivism and toward the Neo-classical Stalinist architecture, the volumes contain projects designed both in the Constructivist and Neo-classical styles. Many of the projects presented in the volumes were never completed, in part because of this transition, and exist only on the pages of these volumes. The introductory article by the editor, Vladimir Dediukhin (1895-1938) the Acting Executive Secretary of the Union of Soviet Architects at the time of publication, takes a middle position on Constructivism, both praising if for "properly understanding the need for the development of new forms, new materials, new construction methods and new technologies" while critiquing it for "ignoring the tasks of artistic-compositional order in architecture". Of special interest is the redesign of the Meyerkhold Theater shown in N2, originally designed by two Constructivist architects Mikhail Barkhin and Sergei Vakhtangov, presented here as re-designed by Aleksei Shchusev, who added ornament to the original Constructivist structure. Despite the re-designs, the building was never completed. Another significant avant-garde project that was never built is the design of the National Commissariat of Heavy Industry by Konstantin Mel'nikov shown in N7 of the set. Designed as a monumental structure placed right in Moscow's Red Square, the building would have fundamentally changed the face of the city. Among the completed projects in the volumes are the various stations of the Moscow Metro, designs for Gorky Park, as well as numerous buildings along the embankment of the Moscow River. Workshops N8 and N9 were apparently closed prior to the publication of the set, and workshop N12 would be closed by the end of 1935. Rare in the trade, especially as a complete set. As of February 2025, KVK, OCLC locate eight holdings in North American institutions.

Moscow, 1936. Octavo (29 × 21 cm). Original printed card wrappers; 97, [2] pp. Illustrations, including photographs, plans, maps, and technical drawings. Light soil to wrappers, rust to staples. Still about very good. One volume of the ten-volume set highlighting the work of the Architectural and Design Workshops of Mossovet, formed in 1933 as part of the plan for the reconstruction of Moscow. Illustrated with plans, elevations, architectural models, and photographs the volume is focused on the work of one of the ten workshops headed by a prominent architect, in this case (N.2) Aleksei Shchusev (1873-1949). One of the masters of Soviet architecture, Shchusev gained notoriety as an architect of Art Nouveau, but would move on to Constructivist architecture in the 1920s, and finally on to the Stalinist Neo-classical style in the 1930s. By 1924 Shchusev was head of the architecture and urban planning department of the Moscow City Council, eventually responsible for implementing the New Moscow City Plan, working with many seminal architects of the early Soviet era. This volume was published at a crucial transitional moment when the Soviet establishment was moving away from Constructivism and toward the Neo-classical Stalinist architecture. Of special interest is the redesign of the Meyerkhold Theater, originally created by two Constructivist architects Mikhail Barkhin and Sergei Vakhtangov, presented in this volume as newly re-designed by Shchusev, who added ornament to the original Constructivist structure. Despite the re-designs, the building was never completed. Shchusev is best remembered today for the modernist structure of Lenin's mausoleum on Red Square. One of 3500 copies. As of December 2024, KVK, OCLC locate eight holdings in North American institutions.