The OSA Group (Organization of Contemporary Architects) was an architectural association in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, which was active from 1925 to 1930 and considered the first group of

constructivist architects Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

. It published the journal ''SA'' (''Sovremmennaia Arkhitektura'' or 'Contemporary Architecture'). It published material by Soviet and overseas contributors. However this led to them being attacked as a 'Western' group and some individuals as being 'bourgeois'. After the closure of the group, their modernist approach to architecture and town planning was eliminated in the Soviet Union by 1934, in favour of socialist realism.

Contemporary architecture

Like the

ASNOVA ASNOVA () was an avant-garde architectural association in the Soviet Union, which was active in the 1920s and early 1930s, commonly called 'the Rationalists'. The association was started in 1923 by Nikolai Ladovsky, a teacher at VKhUTEMAS and ...

group, OSA grew out of the avant-garde wing of the VKhUTEMAS school in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. The group's founders were

Moisei Ginzburg Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg (, ; – 7 January 1946) was a Soviet constructivist architect, best known for his 1929 Narkomfin Building in Moscow. Biography Education Ginzburg (Ginsberg) was born in Minsk into a Jewish architect's family. ...

, well known for his book ''Style and Epoch'' (a Soviet response to

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...

's ''Vers une Architecture'') and the painter, designer and architect

Alexander Vesnin Alexander Aleksandrovich Vesnin (; 28 May 1883 – 7 September 1959), together with his brothers Leonid and Viktor, was a leading light of Constructivist architecture. He is best known for his meticulous perspectival drawings such as Leningrad ...

. Unlike the earlier association the OSA group claimed for itself the name Constructivist, in that it was, in its utilitarianism and concentration on function rather than form, an architectural equivalent to the experiments of 'artistic'

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in the Soviet Union in t ...

. OSA was in many ways the architectural wing of the socialist Modernists of LEF, and likewise set up its own journal in 1926. Until its closure in 1930, ''SA'' would publish articles on a variety of subjects, including a symposium on flat roofs, a special issue on colour in architecture, and discussions of

, the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

, and

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

(who was also a contributor to the journal). The design was mainly by

Aleksei Gan Aleksei Mikhailovich Gan (Russian language, Russian: Алексей Михайлович Ган; born Imberkh; 1887 or 1893 – 8 September, 1942) was a Russian anarchist and later Marxism, Marxist avant-garde artist, art theorist and graphic ...

, who also designed the distinctive grid pattern of the covers. Photography was occasionally by

Alexander Rodchenko Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko (; – 3 December 1956) was a Russian and Soviet artist, sculptor, photographer, and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design; he was married to the artist Varvara Stepa ...

. As well as publishing on the built projects of Modernism, the journal published experimental projects by VKhUTEMAS students such as Lydia Komarova's Comintern project, the strange pod houses of Sokolov, and the works of

Ivan Leonidov Ivan Ilyich Leonidov (; 9 February 1902 – 6 November 1959) was a Soviet constructivist architect, urban planner, painter and teacher. Early life Leonidov was raised on an isolated farmstead in the province of Tver Oblast. The son of a farm ...

. Articles in the journal was mainly in Russian, though occasionally parts of it were in German, highlighting the group's affinities with the Neues Bauen, although no OSA architects were invited to contribute to the

Weissenhof Estate The Weissenhof Estate (German: ''Weißenhofsiedlung'') is a housing estate built for the 1927 ''Deutscher Werkbund'' exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide inexpensive, s ...

. The group was, however, the Soviet counterpart of

Der Ring Der Ring was an architectural collective founded in 1926 in Berlin. It emerged from expressionist architecture with a functionalist agenda. Der Ring was a group of young architects, formed with the objective of promoting Modernist architecture. ...

in Germany: agitating for Modern architecture and construction methods, and polemicising against the Classicism and Eclecticism that would eventually coalesce into

Stalinist architecture Stalinist architecture (), mostly known in the former Eastern Bloc as Stalinist style or socialist classicism, is the architecture of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, between 1933 (when Boris Iofan's draft for the Palace o ...

OSA activities

There are several examples of built works designed by OSA members in the USSR. These include Moisei Ginzburg's apartment blocks (on Gogolsky Boulevard, Moscow, another in Sverdlovsk, and most famously the Gostrakh and Narkomfin buildings); the 1920s-'30s work of the

Vesnin brothers The Vesnin brothers: Leonid Vesnin (1880–1933), Viktor Vesnin (1882–1950) and Alexander Vesnin (1883–1959) were the leaders of Constructivist architecture, the dominant architectural school of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. E ...

such as the

Likhachev Palace of Culture Likмиhachyov (, masculine) or Likhachyova (, feminine), alternatively spelled Likhachev/Likhacheva or Likhachov/Likhachova, is a Russian surname shared by: *Dmitry Likhachov (1906–1999), Russian language and literature scholar * Galina Likhacho ...

and the Mostorg department store in Moscow, and the Ivanovo bank and

DneproGES The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station (), also known as the Dnipro Dam, is a hydroelectric power station in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Operated by Ukrhydroenergo, it is the fifth and largest station in the Dnieper reservoir cascade, a se ...

power station; works by

Mikhail Barsch Michael is a common masculine given name derived from the Hebrew phrase ''mī kāʼēl'', 'Who slike-El', in Aramaic: ܡܝܟܐܝܠ (''Mīkhāʼēl'' ). The theophoric name is often read as a rhetorical question – "Who slike he Hebrew Go ...

, such as Moscow Planetarium (with Sinyakvsky) and the Gostorg office block (as part of a team headed by Boris Velikovsky); works by Ivan Nikolaev, such as the electrical-technical complex in Moscow (with Fissenko; this work was featured in

MOMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

's 1932

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

exhibition) and the large collective house for the students in Moscow; and the workers' housing designed by

Alexander Nikolsky Alexander Mikhailovich Nikolsky (Russian: Александр Михайлович Никольский; February 18, 1858 – December 8, 1942) was a Russian and Ukrainian zoologist born in Astrakhan. From 1877 to 1881, he studied at the Uni ...

in Tractor Street,

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The OSA group's leading theorists were members of the CIAM from 1928 until 1933, with Ginzburg and Nikolai Kolli members of its secretariat, CIRPAC. A small CIAM meeting with the OSA group was held in Moscow in 1932, with

Sigfried Giedion Sigfried Giedion (also spelled Siegfried Giedion; 14 April 1888, Prague – 10 April 1968, Zürich) was a Bohemian-born Swiss historian and critic of architecture. His ideas and books, '' Space, Time and Architecture'', and ''Mechanization ...

and Cornelius van Eesteren in attendance.

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

's ''The General Line'' featured specially built buildings by OSA's Andrey Burov. The utopian projects of

were first published in ''SA'', and their technologically advanced, fantastic nature led to harsh criticisms from the VOPRA group of

Arkady Mordvinov Arkady Grigoryevich Mordvinov (; born Mordvishev (), January 27, 1896 – July 23, 1964) was a Soviet architect and construction manager, notable for Stalinist architecture of Tverskaya Street, Leninsky Avenue, Hotel Ukraina skyscraper ...

and Karo Alabian, coining the phrase 'Leonidovism' to attack this 'Western' group: in a 1929 editorial ''SA'' trenchantly defended Leonidov, but this was a sign of what was to come, with Mikhail Barsch being targeted in an 'anti-bourgeois' campaign at VKhUTEMAS/VKhUTEIN.

From collective houses to disurbanism

OSA took an avant-garde position with respect to urban planning as well as architecture, one that sometimes differed from the position of the Communist Party.Alan Colquhoun, ''Modern Architecture'' p133 (Oxford University Press, 2002) In 1926-29 they were active in propagandising collective houses and pioneered the notion of the social condenser. OSA architects were employed by the state to develop a standard for apartment buildings (the ''Stroikom'' apartments) for the purposes of mass production. However, by 1929 there was a shift in the group's theory away from collective city blocks to 'disurbanism', perhaps influenced by the brutalities of forced

collectivisation Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member-o ...

in the Soviet countryside. Mikhail Okhitovich's theories of using telecommunications, roads and infrastructure to create diffuse, semi-rural cities were published in ''SA'', and the group's proposals for the new town of

Magnitogorsk Magnitogorsk ( rus, Магнитого́рск, p=məɡnʲɪtɐˈɡorsk, ) is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. Its population is curre ...

were produced with his input, only to be defeated by

Ernst May Ernst Georg May (27 July 1886 – 11 September 1970) was a German architect and city planner. May successfully applied urban design techniques to the city of Frankfurt am Main during the Weimar Republic period, and in 1930 less successful ...

of Der Ring. The 1930 debate over 'disurbanism' saw the OSA leadership (particularly Ginzburg) throw itself behind the theory, which had dire consequences when the movement was condemned by a Politburo statement. The journal was wound up in 1930, and OSA briefly became SASS (Section of Architects for Socialist Construction) before being merged into the state architecture union. The group's members continued to practice in a Modernist fashion until 1934 and the official ushering in of Socialist Realism. Most OSA members survived the

great purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

, with the exceptions of Alexei Gan and Mikhail Okhitovich, who were both murdered. With the general rehabilitation of Modernism in the 1960s the issues of SA were reprinted, after decades of suppression.

Some OSA Members and other contributors to ''SA''

* Andrey Burov *

Ilya Golosov Ilya Alexandrovich Golosov (Russian: Илья Александрович Голосов; 31 July 1883 – 21 January 1945) was an architect from the late Russian Empire and early Soviet Union. A leader of Constructivism in 1925-1931, Ilya Golo ...

* Panteleimon Golosov * Nikolai Kolli *

Lydia Komarova Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, the Lydia ...

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

* Nikolai Krasilnikov * Ivan Nikolaev *

* Mikhail Okhitovich *

Alexander Pasternak Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are A ...

Varvara Stepanova Varvara Fyodorovna Stepanova (; – May 20, 1958) was a Russian artist. With her husband Alexander Rodchenko, she was associated with the Constructivist branch of the Russian avant-garde, which rejected aesthetic values in favour of revolutiona ...

References and sources

;References ;Sources *Catherine Cooke, ''Russian Avant-Garde - Theories of Architecture, Urbanism and the City'' (Academy Editions, 1995) *Hugh D Hudson, ''Blueprints and Blood'' *Selim Khan-Magomedov, ''Pioneers of Soviet Architecture'' *Anatole Kopp, ''Town and Revolution'' *Eric Mumford, ''The CIAM discourse on Urbanism'' *Frederick Starr, 'Visionary Town Planning' in ''Cultural Revolution in Russia 1928-31'' (ed Sheila Fitzpatrick)

External links