Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Piccadilly, London


Space invader

An alien invader has appeared in the courtyard of the Royal Academy. It’s a scale model of one of the great unbuilt projects of Russian communism, the Monument to the Third International, designed in 1919–20 by Vladimir Tatlin and commonly known as Tatlin’s tower. The original was intended to be 400 m high and although known as a monument it was intended to house various functions of the Third International, also known as Comintern, the organization set up in 1919 to fight for communism in Russia and beyond. Inside the tower’s double spiral of twisted metal were to be four structures of steel and glass, each in effect a separate building. These inner structures – in the model they are made of wire – were designed to accommodate separate parts of Comintern. Each was to be a perfect form (a cube, a pyramid, a cylinder, and a hemisphere) and the three lower ones were meant to rotate at different speeds.

Perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that this monster monument was never built. The constructional challenges were immense and the amount of steel required was enormous. But not for the first or last time, an unbuilt structure started balls rolling. The idea of its intricate steel network inspired architects and engineers, and the tower (and its enigmatic designer) has enjoyed a long afterlife in books about architecture, histories of the Soviet Union, and even fiction. Now architects Dixon Jones have built this replica to accompany the Royal Academy’s exhibition Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture, 1915-–1935, which is on at the RA until 22 January. The tower looks rather odd against the Palladian-Victorian background of Burlington House. As I was trying to photograph it, I longed for a neutral background. But the contrast between the constructivist steelwork of Tatlin’s tower and the stonework behind is, I suppose, part of the point. It was always meant to stick out and in its new incarnation in Piccadilly it still does.

There are details of the exhibition here.

9 comments:

columnist said...

Its hideousness and folly are so much more poignant against the backdrop of the RA.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Columnist: I suppose the contrast would have been equally striking in St Petersburg, where the tower was intended to be built. Seeing the model in an architectural context certainly makes one think about it in a different way from seeing a smaller mock-up in a museum or in the pages of an architectural; text-book.

Gareth Williams said...

Thanks Philip.

It seems to have quite a bit in common with the steel structure being erected for the Limpicks? Here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/ArcelorMittal_Orbit_-_November11.jpg

I'm always struck by the building on the south bank of London Bridge, which is based on a Russian Suprematist (?) design of the '20s. Can't find any images of it but I've always thought it looked rather good. It is a cube with a bit cut out on a bottom corner to create an entrance.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Do you mean the one right next to the southern end of the bridge? - It's called No 1 London Bridge.

The Olympics thing is weird.

bazza said...

I was going to ask if it may have also inspired Watson & Crick in their search for the structure of DNA. However, the Olympics structure looks like it in turn has been inspired by a double-helix!
The Soviet inspired model and it's juxtaposition reminds me of the Pyramid outside the Louvre.
Click here for Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

Philip Wilkinson said...

Bazza: My impression is that the pyramid sits more harmoniously in the Louvre than Tatlin's tower does in the courtyard at the RA. But then the Louvre pyramid is permanent, whereas presumably this will move on when the exhibition closes. I wonder if it will find a new home?

Gareth Williams said...

That's it Philip.

Whilst I think the Louvre pyramid looks good, I find it can be unbelievably hot under there when it's sunny. Glass is such a pain.

Emile de Bruijn said...

Yes I think this is an interesting juxtaposition: Victorian Palladianism vs Communist utopianism, the 'order' of the columns and pediments of Burlington House against the skyward dynamism of Tatlin's megalomaniac dream. But of course there are parallels too: we only have to think of Etienne-Louis Boullee's unrealised and unrealisable designs to see a similar combination of architecture and dreamy (or crazy) idealism.

Philip Wilkinson said...

Emile: Yes. I agree. Ah, Boullée. If only...