Architecture of Life

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During the 1920s and 1930s, advocates of Soviet architecture sought to establish a methodological and theoretical foundation for their modernist vision by drawing on principles from the human sciences. This study explores the roots of this transdisciplinary and transnational effort, analyzing the radical approaches of key figures like El Lissitzky, Moisei Ginzburg, and Nikolay Ladovsky, along with their lesser-known peers. It illustrates how Soviet architects aimed to counteract Fordist production methods with more human-centered strategies informed by biological and psychological sciences. They perceived the built environment as intrinsically linked to social evolution, integrating concepts from psychoanalysis, personality theory, and spatial perception into an ideology that anchored functional design in individual attributes. This comprehensive overview reveals the ideals that shaped the expanded project of Soviet modernism, emphasizing the profound connections between its perspectives on both natural and manufactured aspects of life.