Exhibition captures vision of Soviet era

Show opens in London to examine influence of Moscow architects

LONDON - The utopian vision for a redeveloped Moscow 100 years ago is the focus of an exhibition which opened on Wednesday at London's Design Museum.

The show, Imagine Moscow, marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution and examines some of the unfinished or unrealized architectural visions of early Soviet-era architects as they sought to build a new world.

"The moment after the Russian Revolution was an important moment in design history and architectural history," exhibition curator Eszter Steierhoffer told Xinhua.

"Many of these designs seem so familiar, and resonate with our contemporary landscape. They influence so heavily contemporary architecture," said Steierhoffer.

Six visions of buildings which have never been realized are displayed in the show, including architect El Lissitzky's plan for horizontal skyscrapers which would have changed the Moscow landscape dramatically.

Also shown is Ivan Leonidov's plan for a monumental library and planetarium, aiming to collect together all human knowledge.

The building would have used the latest technology to link to the rest of Moscow by an aero-tram, and to the rest of the world by a powerful radio station.

The most well-known unfinished scheme is Boris Iofan's Palace of the Soviets, a building, the world's tallest at the time, taller than the Empire State Building in New York, and topped with a giant statue of Vladimir Lenin, which would have been three times the size of the Statue of Liberty.

It was the disruption of the World War II that caused the project to be abandoned.

Other projects examined include a scheme for the "Commissariat of Heavy Industry," and another for a communal house.

"Architecture was so heavily involved in society and politics and designing life. Each of the different case studies is a different moment.

For Lissitzky's skyscraper he is introducing a new city; for Leonidov's project, he is talking about networks, knowledge sharing and globalization," said Steierhoffer.

The exhibition runs until June 4.