Narkomfin

The Narkomfin building, one of the most daring buildings of the 20th century, was built at the peak of the Soviet avant garde to the designs of Moisei Ginzburg, Ignaty Milinis and engineer Sergei Prokhorov. The concentration of innovative ideas in Narkomfin and its aesthetic perfection has made Narkomfin a monument of world significance.

It was constructed (1928-1930) to provide apartments for the workers of the People’s Commissariat of Finance otherwise known as Narkomfin. Ginzburg and Milinis were given the ideologically charged task of creating a transitional, semi-communal apartment block to introduce the Soviet citizen to the communal way of life. It was to have brought communism into the heart of domestic life and prepare citizens for a fully communal life.

Of all the communal buildings constructed in the utopian years of the early Soviet Union, Narkomfin was the most perfectly realised. It was a project of great idealism, full of the spirit of the young Soviet State. The house was commissioned by the Commissar of Finance, Nikolai Milyutin, who was also an architectural theorist. He threw the weight of his influence behind the project, ensuring optimum conditions for the completion of the project. Milyutin and his family lived in a penthouse on the roof of the building. The fact that Narkomfin failed as a communal building of the transitional type is a consequence of the demise of Soviet utopianism itself. This only increases the value of the building as a historical witness and in no way detracts from its beauty or significance.

The long elegant façade of Narkomfin, with its rows of horizontal windows, topped with the Commissar’s penthouse has earned the building the nickname, “the ship.” On completion, it was an ensemble made up of three buildings: the housing block, the communal block linked by a covered corridor on the first floor, and a small laundry building reached by a special path across a small park in front of the main block. Now, wedged between a new shopping centre and the Stalin-era American Embassy, this icon of modernism has been neglected and poorly maintained for decades causing many people to think it is abandoned. In fact, half of its apartments are still inhabited. Thanks to these inhabitants, the building still lives.

In Narkomfin, Ginzburg, the leader of the Constructivists, broke down traditional ways of building: the spatial composition and architecture of the complex demonstrates a radical search for a new form for the contemporary apartment block. It was to become a prototype for modern apartment blocks and housing estates all over Europe. It was an international project: Narkomfin was the first fully realised building constructed to the five principles of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus professor Hinnerk Scheper worked on the colour scheme. Le Corbusier acknowledged the influence Narkomfin had on him and his Unité des Habitation (1946-1952) in Marseille, is seen as the continuation of ideas first realised by Ginzburg.

Narkomfin’s influence on architecture can still be felt today. It has been a pilgrimage site for architects and historians from all over the world ever since its construction; figures like Rem Koolhas and Zaha Hadid often mention the huge influence Soviet Constructivism has had on their work. A campaign for its rehabilitation began as long ago as the sixties, but to little effect. NowThe Narkomfin Foundation is working with the architect’s grandson, Alexei Ginzburg and internationally renowned restorers of modernism to find a way to restore this important cultural landmark and return it to its rightful place in the pantheon of international modernism.

Clementine Cecil