The Innovative Potential of Scarcity in SA’s Comradely Competition for Communal Housing, 1927

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Christina E. Crawford, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2014-01-01
• Publisher: ScimagoJr
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: 2014 Scimago Lab
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/32886217/CRAWFORD_Innovative_Potential_of_Scarcity_ArchiDoct_vol1_iss2-libre.pdf?1391634832=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DThe_Innovative_Potential_of_Scarcity_in.pdf&Expires=1726496745&Signature=gG4aXhVnze1CeTHVgV7ONNZ4HkoE2EJ~QpD4LZyMdKjI78AvXvcd0zxHYkXhDbdDqrv2W01bqnvCfaCoco7xJV5xyh~8WRS71agnsIxO~jUXGKk83XAB25J8Z2bXJJcSX~NehLQPMjH94ZLAGc-VPggXO03O2MaTlBmju-oLa7SglJ7juN155S0~TkeTiChQDApmOkDEJ3hC78CoYrMYY1je-jArvQXbVsY8HFplS-zK5RbgKqnagC3R1DFe-1LEwsEWVY5GJgNbGSvtYGgyvxFw6mPAzdjucceKVNuHTb08PxB64N1R6oRTMSPHrIiyn2zwZfHb0JC6dn1B5iN-EQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: ArchiDOCT
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 32
• End Page: 53
• Keywords: Spartan conditions; socialist housing; radical spatial complexity; economic stringency; architectonic approaches; efficiency; technocratic accoutrements; spatial intervention; dom-kommuna; minimalism; Soviet architecture; house-commune; scarcity; historic context; housing shortage
• Research Categories: History, Russian and Soviet; Economics, Commerce - Business; Architecture

Abstract

This essay analyses the innovative architectonic approaches developed by Soviet architects in their entries to a 1927 design competition for a new socialist housing type, the so-called dom-kommuna or house-commune. The competition, sponsored by the preeminent architectural journal, Sovremennaia Arkhitektura, sought solutions to address Moscow’s severe housing shortage within the limits of economic stringency. While the eight published entries abound with charts and graphs to substantiate claims of eficiency, these technocratic accoutrements obscure radical spatial complexity. At the scale of both the building and the unit, the competition designs capitalize on architectural expertise to wrest generosity from Spartan conditions. In each entry, careful allocation of program and circulation resulted in a masterful balance of plan minimalism and sectional expansiveness. This paper situates the house-commune competition entries within their historic context, but also thoroughly analyzes the architectural solutions to elicit programmatic and spatial and strategies that may be instructive for current practice.