What is OSA & how did it influence Russian architecture?

One of the first to speak about the cities of the future was futurist poet Velimir Khlebnikov. In his essay ‘Us & Houses’, he described the ‘glass-hut’ – a compact dwelling made of curved glass. In it, one could relax, travel and combine such "apartments" into hotel-houses or residential complexes – they weren't tied to a specific building or location. Their inhabitants, thus, became "citizens of the world".

The poet described architectural designs that seemed like something out of science fiction at the time: poplar-shaped houses, tube-shaped buildings, film-like houses, book-shaped buildings. Half a century later, four high-rises would be built on Novy Arbat in Moscow, their silhouettes resembling open books.

Not a style, but a method

Famous constructivists participated in this movement – Alexander and Viktor Vesnin, Moisei Ginzburg, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, Lazar Khidekel, Ivan Leonidov and others. They did not invent a new style, preferring to say they were creating a new method for shaping urban space – using glass, concrete and metal.

With simple forms, an integration into the surrounding space and a focus of functionality, the Constructivists created fundamentally new types of buildings. One of the first was the Vesnin brothers' design for the Palace of Labor. This building was intended to serve simultaneously as the House of Soviets, a cultural center, a museum and a congress hall. The architects proposed constructing it from a then-new material: reinforced concrete. They organized the space in a unique way, abandoning the inner courtyard system and accommodating all necessary services in a 20-story tower. They also designed a huge, transformable hall that could accommodate over 10,000 people.

The OSA members didn't tie their projects to the ground – they were flexible and adaptable. For example, Ivan Leonidov designed a workers' club with a park and sports grounds that looked more like a space station. It was intended to serve as a multipurpose educational space, where people could attend various classes and it could be transformed for different purposes – from movie screenings to hosting a planetarium.

The design for the Lenin Institute of Library Science, presented by Leonidov in 1927, was a true revelation. The architect combined an elegant multi-story book depository building with a spherical auditorium, both "floating" above the single-story buildings located in the park area. Leonidov's visionary ideas influenced many architects: for example, Oscar Niemeyer's work on the government center in Brasilia was influenced by the Russian architect, while Le Corbusier called Leonidov a man with a perfect ear for architecture.

Creators of Standardized Buildings

The Association of Modern Architects sought to create standardized designs that could be built throughout the Soviet Union. This led to the emergence of fundamentally new buildings that combined housing with cultural and social facilities – residential complexes or "living quarters”, from which entire cities were to be formed. Such buildings housed not just one or two hundred people; the number of residents numbered in the thousands! Later, they would evolve into neighborhoods, defining the face of Soviet architecture for decades to come.

Building the City of the Future

For example, in 1928-1929, architect Nikolai Kuzmin designed a commune for miners in Anzhero-Sudzhensk. Its population was growing rapidly, but there was nowhere to live: there was no more than three square meters per person. Because of this, moral standards were largely neglected and many in the city drank heavily and caused disorder.

Before creating his project, he studied the city for a long time and practically devised a new social structure for it, one in which the state cared for children, adults, their health and leisure. He divided the residents (the complex housed over 5,000 people) into age groups: the buildings contained everything a person could need throughout life. From a maternity hospital, nurseries, kindergartens and schools to buildings for singles and married couples, nursing homes and everything in between. Everything was designed so that nothing would distract Soviet citizens from their labor exploits. There was no private property; everything was shared, including housing. As soon as a person's status changed, they moved to the appropriate unit.

Kuzmin created a minute-by-minute schedule for the commune: cleaners were to appear in the living quarters at precisely 6:15 a.m., breakfast was served in the dining room from 6:28 am to 6:43 am (there were no kitchens in the apartments) and so on. He even thought through the work processes: he proposed dividing the workers into teams that would work in shifts in the mine.

Moisei Ginzburg, author of The Narkomfin House project in Moscow, called Kuzmin's communal house "a flawless assembly line". The Siberian architect's design was approved at the OSA congress, but, within a few years, criticism began for its overly idealistic social concepts.

*You can learn more about the OSA at the ‘Constructivism. The Trajectory of Method’ exhibition in the Shchusev Museum of Architecture in Moscow, which runs until March 29, 2026.