Rooftop kindergarten plus communal flats: Moscow’s highest Constructivism house listed as architectural landmark

One more place has been listed as a regional cultural heritage site. The residential building of the Obrabstroi working association is located along the junction of the Kurskoye line of the Moscow railway and Oktyabryskaya (former Nikolayevskaya) railway.

The building was constructed in 1931. It was designed by the architect, Vasily Kildishev, who drew up plans using a Constructivism style characterised by simple forms and a total lack of any form of decor whatsoever. It resembles the upside-down letter F and it has four sections that are all different heights. The central part of the construction has nine floors and there is a tower on top with round windows. On the sides of the main entrance, there are two curved buildings each with eight floors which resemble the wings of something. To the south there is another section which has six floors.

The nine-storey part of the Obrabstroi House is the highest building of the Constructivism period. In the 1930s, there was a height regulation, under which it was forbidden to construct buildings with more than eight floors. The Obrabstroi House is the only exception.

“The Obrabstroi residential building was one of the first examples of a new type of building. The famous Narkomfin Building was designed based on a similar principle. These buildings signified the transition from private residences to a socialist commune. The architect who designed the Obrabstroi House united individual flats with a sort of commune in one building. For example, flats with bathrooms and kitchens were located on the first five floors of the nine-storey building, with communal rooms occupying the four upper floors. They were connected by a common corridor. Kitchens, showers and WCs were communal. There was a canteen for people living in the building. The cellar had a club, a fitness area plus a laundry. However, the club and the fitness area were soon turned into accommodation. The laundry went on operating until the 1960s,” said Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage Alexei Yemelyanov.

There was an observation point on the roof above the main entrance, in addition to a kindergarten located on the top floor of the six-storey wing, with part of the roof used as a strolling area for children.

In the 1960s, the building was completely done up. The rooms on the upper floors became communal flats and the entrance to the observation point over the main entrance was closed.

The original narrow elongated windows have survived in the main entrance and so have the chessboard-like staircases of the landings made out of concrete covered with red paint containing lead. (red lead is a protective and decorative highly-resistant orange-red coloured paint).

Obrabstroi

The Obrabstroi Working Residential Construction Cooperative Association was founded in 1925. It united workers employed at various state enterprises in the Baumansky District and was engaged in constructing places where people could live. In 1927, Obrabstroi was considered one of Moscow’s largest building companies with 48 enterprises in it. Later the association became part of the Bauman Builder association. In 1934, it constructed another new style type of building located at 20 bldg. 1 Staraya Basmannaya Street. The architect Alexander Kesler designed it and also combined individual flats and a corridor on the two upper floors.

Vasily Kildishev (1894 – year of death unknown) is a Soviet architect who worked in the 1930s. He graduated from the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He designed the building for the Medsanstoi association located on 41 Pokrovka Street (built in 1929) and also was a co-creator of the project of a seven-storey residential building at 3 Petrovergisky Pereulok, bldg. 1).

Preserving landmarks

The work to preserve and restore architectural landmarks in Moscow is carried out continuously. New landmarks are constantly added to the list of cultural heritage sites. Over the last seven years, about 700 landmarks received this status, including 370 identified cultural heritage sites and about 325 federal and regional cultural heritage sites.

For example, the state also protects another sample of Constructivism: the residential building of the Trudkoopstroi working association constructed in the late 1920s. This September the status was given to the old Moscow post office in Myasnitskaya Street, with one of its building being an example of Constructivism, and the factory canteen of the Dinamo Plant built in the 1930s.