Lessons of the Stalin Age Architectural Process (based on the example of reconstruction projects of the entry square on Prospekt Stalina in Leningrad in the early 1950 s.)
In the early 1950s, Leningad architectural community faced the problem of reconstructing the entrance square to Prospekt Stalina (now Moskovsky Prospekt and Victory Square). The avenue, which had just received the name of “the leader of all peoples”, was to become the main architectural ensemble of the city refecting both Soviet and Western advanced urbanistic ideas and possessing a symbolic and ideological significance. The Leningrad architectural elite as well as beginning architects, students of the Leningrad Engineering and Construction Institute, were involved in the project. Standard symmetrical urban structures obligatory for central ensembles of Soviet cities were not acceptable in this location. The impetus for generating an alternative decision, which was to drastically change the city’s urban planning policy, was given by students’ diploma projects that are considered in this article. The research is based on previously unpublished archival materials.