Architecture of Russia
After the Mongol invasion of Rus, the Russian architectural trajectory continued in the principalities of Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal, Pskov, Muscovy, and the succeeding states of the Tsardom of Russia.
Under the reign of Vladimir the Great in 988 AD, the Kievan Rus' converted to Orthodox Christianity from their previous pagan religions, and the monumental architecture that followed was mainly ecclesiastical in type.
[15] While the churches constructed in the twelfth century didn't rival the Cathedral of St Sophia in scale or complexity, the princes continued their show of power in their architectural projects.
The exterior is characterized by narrow windows and double-recessed niches, which proceed in a rhythm across the façade; the interior walls reach a height of 20 metres (66 ft).
[18] After relations with the new Mongol overlords stabilized in the mid to late fourteenth century, there was a revival in architectural style and innovation in Novgorod and a resurgence in masonry church construction.
Both the cement ground and limestone whitewash used in the wall covering contained impurities that would result in the typical light yellow and pink tones of the church exteriors.
[32] Records place Zvenigorod under the Muscovite domain in the fourteenth century, and by the end of it Iurii endowed it with a monastery to be under the direction of the monk Savva.
He encouraged building elaborate ecclesiastical residences (such as the Rostov Kremlin on the Nero Lake, which featured five tall churches, many towers, palaces, and chambers).
[43] Since the tents were banned, the Muscovite architects had to replace them with successive rows of corbel arches (kokoshniks), and this decorative element was to become a hallmark of the 17th-century Moscow style.
A Russian envoy to Italy during Ivan III's reign, Semion Tolbuzin, managed to recruit the Bolognese architect Aristotele Fioravanti (1420–85), as well as his son and an assistant.
[57] A characteristic of the Naryshkin Baroque is the combination of influences from western Europe with traditional Russian forms, and is mainly present in ecclesiastical architecture with a few secular examples.
[58] There are several components characteristic to these newer structures, such as a focus on a balance of symmetry, carved limestone cornices, attached columns, and a more classical style.
[66][67] Trezzini initially started by supervising the construction of the Kronshlot bastion, where he demonstrated his skill as an engineer, and was then commissioned to rebuild the fortifications in Narva, and the design of the Peter-Paul fortress would remain one of his main duties.
[78][79] After Peter the Great's death and the ascension of Empress Anna to the throne, baroque construction in Saint Petersburg continued, this time under the employ of the Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
[81] In 1730 they moved to Moscow, where the capital had been temporarily relocated, and either Francesco or his father were appointed court architect (it is unclear which Rastrelli it was) and were commissioned to design two wooden palaces (neither remain).
She had a great passion for architecture, evident in her letters to her advisor on cultural matters,[90] and remarked on her dislike of the baroque extravaganza of Elizabeth's preferred style, thinking it as disorderly and lacking in rationality.
[97] The architect Andrei Nikiforovich Voronikhin was a pupil of Wailly in Paris and would design the Virgin of Kazan cathedral in St Petersburg (1801-1811) and boasted a domed center flanked by quadrant colonnade.
While it remained a popular choice until the outbreak of World War I, in 1905–1914 it gave way to the Russian neoclassical revival – merging the Empire style and Palladian tradition with contemporary construction technology.
In the first year of Soviet rule all architects refusing to emigrate (and the new generation) denounced any classical heritage in their work and began to propagate formalism, the most influential of all Revivalist themes.
The most ambitious of all was the Monument to the Third International, planned in 1919 by Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953), а 400-meter spiral, wound around a tilted central axis with rotating glass chambers.
In 1918 Alexey Shchusev (1873–1949) and Ivan Zholtovsky founded the Mossovet Architectural Workshop, where the complex planning of Moscow's reconstruction as a new Soviet capital took place.
This complex consisted of a series of simple, expressive granite monoliths and became the focal point for further development in Soviet sculptural and memorial architecture.
The Dnieper Hydroelectric Station (1927–32), built by a collective of architects headed by Viktor Vesnin (1882–1950), has an innovative design featuring a curved dam with a rhythmic pattern of foundations.
The most famous of these was the Zuev Workers' Club (1927–29) in Moscow by Ilya Golosov (1883–1945), whose composition relied on the dynamic contrast of simple shapes, planes, complete walls and glazed surfaces.
Visually, the building resembles part of a gear; each of the three cantilevered concrete "teeth" is a balcony of the main auditorium, which could be used individually or combined into a large theatre hall.
After 1945, the focus was on both rebuilding structures destroyed in World War II and erecting new ones: seven high-rise buildings were built at symbolic points in the Moscow area.
A well-known example occurred in the postwar reconstruction of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev (now Kyiv), in which the planned Kreschatik avenue and its central square (Ploschad Kalinina) were to form a single rich space enclosed by Stalinist architecture.
In particular Hotel Ukrayina, which was to crown the square with a look similar to one of Moscow's "Seven Sisters", was left as a solid shape without a top spire or any rich external decoration.
Although rapidly built, their quality was poor compared with earlier housing; their monotonous appearance contributed to the grey and dull stereotype characteristic of socialist cities.
Each complex includes an extensive area with a yard for walks, a playground with swings, a sandbox for the games and sites for parking vehicles, which are often supplemented by garages for cars, lined up separately from the residential buildings.
