Nikolai Dzhemsovich (Yakovlevich) Kolli (russian: Николай Джемсович (Яковлевич) Колли; – 3 December 1966) was a Soviet and Russian Modernist— Constructivist architect, architectural functionary, and

city planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

.The Free Dictionary: Nikolai Dzhemsovich Kolli
. accessed 11.23.2013

History

Kolli was born in Moscow, and studied at the Imperial

Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...

, and then at the Leninist VKhUTEMAS in Moscow. He first came to attention with a 1918 proposal for a monument celebrating the victory of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

over Tzarist

General Krasnov Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov ( rus, Пётр Николаевич Краснов; 22 September ( old style: 10 September) 1869 – 17 January 1947), sometimes referred to in English as Peter Krasnov, was a Don Cossack historian and officer, prom ...

, in the form of a red wedge cleaving a block of white stone. It became an image that artist

El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...

subsequently appropriated in "

Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (russian: Клином красным бей белых!, ) is a 1919 lithographic Bolshevik propaganda poster by artist El Lissitzky, "the man through whose exertions the new Russian ideas became generally under ...

." Nikolai Kolli is buried in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery.Vvedenskoe.pogost.info: Nikolai Kolli, buried in Vvedenskoye Cemetery
/ref>

Modernism

Nikolai Kolli studied under

Ivan Zholtovsky Ivan Vladislavovich Zholtovsky (russian: Иван Владиславович Жолтовский, be, Іван Уладзіслававіч Жалтоўскі; November 27, 1867 – July 16, 1959) was a Soviet and Russian architect and educator ...

as one of his "Twelve Disciples." In the late 1920s became a member of both the Soviet OSA Group (Union of Contemporary Architects), and a delegate to the international CIAM (''Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne'') architectural group. From 1928 through 1932 he lived part-time in Paris, assisting

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

in that architect's only built work in Moscow, the

Tsentrosoyuz building The Tsentrosoyuz Building or Centrosoyuz Building (russian: Центросоюз) is a government structure in Moscow, Russia, constructed in 1933 by Le Corbusier and Nikolai Kolli. Centrosoyuz refers to a Soviet bureaucracy, the Central Union of ...

(Central Cooperative Alliance offices). The Charnel-House blog: Nikolai Kolli and Le Corbusier’s Tsentrosoiuz building in Moscow
(text & vintage images) . accessed 11.23.2013.

Career

Kolli taught at the N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School from 1920 to 1941, and at the Moscow Institute of Architecture from 1931 to 1941. From 1935 to 1951 he headed the Moscow branch of the Soviet Union of Architects.

Works

The works of Nikolai Kolli include: * All-Russian Agricultural and Cottage-industry Exhibition, Moscow, 1923 — collaborated in the design of a number of structures. *

Dnieper Hydroelectric Station The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station ( uk, ДніпроГЕС, DniproHES; russian: ДнепроГЭС, DneproGES), also known as Dneprostroi Dam, in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is the largest hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper river. ...

, on the

Dnieper River } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia has a populat ...

, 1927-1932 — with

Viktor Vesnin Viktor Aleksandrovich Vesnin (russian: Виктор Александрович Веснин; April 9, 1882 – September 17, 1950), was a Russian Empire and Soviet architect. His early works (1909–1915) follow the canon of Neoclassicist Revival; ...

and others. *

(Central Cooperative Alliance), Moscow, (design 1928 - 1933, built 1933) — collaboration with

. * Chistye Prudy station of the

Moscow Metro The Moscow Metro) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first ...

, 1935. * North Pavilion for the Park Kultury station of the Moscow Metro, 1935 — with S.G. Andrievsky. * Paveletskaya station of the

, 1950 — with I. Kasetl.

References

*The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). *“Arkhitektor N. Ia. Kolli.” Arkhitektura SSSR, 1964, no. 12. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolli, Nikolai 1894 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Russian architects Architects from Moscow Bauman Moscow State Technical University faculty Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne members Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni Vkhutemas alumni Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Constructivist architects Modernist architects Modernist architecture in Russia Russian architects Russian educators Russian urban planners Soviet architects Soviet educators Soviet urban planners Burials at Vvedenskoye Cemetery

History

Modernism

Career

Works

See also

References