The Rusakov Workers' Club in Moscow is a notable example of constructivist architecture. Designed by Konstantin Melnikov, it was constructed from 1927 to 1928.
In plan, the club resembles a fan; in elevation, it is divided into a base and three cantilevered concrete seating areas. Each of these can be used as a separate auditorium, while if combined, the building seats over 1,000 people. At the rear of the building are more conventional offices. The only visible materials used in its construction are concrete, brick and glass.
The function of the building is to some extent expressed in the exterior, which Melnikov described as a "tensed muscle".
In 2005 a commemorative coin (3 ruble, silver) was issued by the Central Bank of Russia, featuring Rusakov Workers' Club building.
(Source: Wikipedia)
"Inclined as Melnikov was to identify personally with the new urbanites for whom the workers' clubs were built, he naturally considered his own values relevant to the situation and sought to apply them in the clubs. Hence, as in his own house, he set the clubhouses against the hostile city rather than in it, employing sharply distinctive forms to make them appear 'as individualist against the general backdrop of urban building.' Inside, far from providing space for mobilizing people into a faceless mass, he envisioned settings that would enhance 'close intercourse among people, but in the context of their diverse strivings with respect to one another.'"
(Source: S. Frederick Starr. Melnikov: Solo Architect in a Mass Society. p134-139)
"The aesthetic of theater is not beauty, but the force of maximal possibilities; that which people can only dream of in their everyday lives can be incarnated in the theater. To enable people to witness events that are changing with incredible speed and yet to remain alive and unharmed will be the goal of contemporary theatrical spectacles.
"The theater is necessary so as to express with special force the moral substance (ideinost) of the moment, so the viewer, regardless of his individual desire, would be penetrated by one concentrated thought, along with everyone sitting with him. The theater must be convncing for everyone in it; if its persuasiveness is debatable and subject to differing interpretations, it would not be a theater."
(Source: Konstantin S. Melnikov. from S. Frederick Starr. Melnikov: Solo Architect in a Mass Society. p153.)
