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El arquitecto ruso Lazar Jidekel di- la Exposition des Arts Dcoratifs de va desde el Cuadrado negro sobre
buj entre 1924 y 1933 un conjunto Pars La cit dans lespace. En Rusia, blanco de 1915 hasta las composicio-
formidable de ciudades areas que de- Anton Lavinski propuso en 1921 un nes coloristas ms complejas en las
safiaban la gravedad flotando sobre el modelo de ciudad estratificada verti- que elementos geomtricos flotan en
territorio y generando un paisaje artifi- calmente en diferentes niveles super- tensin sobre el plano del papel, y los
Esbozo para una ciudad del futuro Futuristic City (1928)
cial inslito, en el que el nuevo hom- puestos. En 1927, Viktor Kalmikov planits y arkitektons tridimensionales.
bre sovitico encontrara un modo re- dibuj una ciudad que llam Saturni, Pero ms all de su genealoga formal,
volucionario de vivir. Estas visiones que consista en un anillo situado en el las ciudades areas de Jidekel son ex-
urbanas no eran utopas onricas de ecuador terrestre y que ocasionalmen- perimentos espaciales a medio camino
mundos imposibles; Jidekel, estaba te, en su modo de vuelo estacionario, entre protoarquitecturas que flotan en
convencido de que se haran realidad se podra elevar y mantenerse flotan- un espacio ingrvido y composiciones
en un futuro prximo que ellos mis- do en rbita. Y un ao ms tarde, en abstractas que revelan asuntos espec-
mos haban comenzado a construir 1928, Georgi Krutikov entreg como ficamente urbanos y arquitectnicos.
con el triunfo de la Revolucin. estudiante del VJUTEIN, la Gorod Jidekel propone la construccin de
Pero Jidekel no estaba solo. En las Budushchego, una ciudad mecanizada unos paisajes en los que se establecen
primeras dcadas del siglo xx, al tiem- y volante formada por anillos comu- nuevos vnculos entre el artificio cons-
po que se desarrollaba la tecnologa nales y productivos, y agrupaciones truido y el medio natural, a travs de los
de la aviacin, muchos arquitectos arracimadas de viviendas suspendi- cuales ambos se formalizan y se com-
El YIVO de Nueva y artistas, no slo rusos, llevando al das en el aire que se enlazan a ellos y plementan, y haciendo una reinterpre-
York expone la extremo los primeros vuelos meca- conectadas entre s mediante clulas tacin vertical de la ciudad-jardn de
obra de Lazar nizados, soaron con viajes interpla- individuales volantes. Howard, se adelanta a las propuestas
Jidekel, autor de netarios y con artefactos voladores Todas ellas ambicionaban la in- desurbanistas soviticas de Mijal Oji-
inslitas visiones fabulosos que permitiran colonizar vencin de unas estructuras sociales tovich. Su modelo urbano insiste fuer-
en las que la el sistema solar, o el universo entero, en las que pudiera emerger un nuevo temente en el carcter infraestructural
ciudad se convierte con arquitecturas csmicas. hombre sin ataduras con el pasado. de la ciudad moderna y la relevancia
en territorio. El artista alemn Wenzel Hablik Para ello se proponan territorios arti- crtica de sus conexiones y sus siste-
ya haba dibujado entre 1907 y 1914 ficiales y elevados sobre el existente, mas de movilidad. Sin embargo, estas
An exhibition at the un conjunto de ciudades areas, entre en el que se pensaban que las tradicio- visiones urbanas no tienen su origen
Institute for Jewish ellas la Luftkolonie, que se asemejaba nes y los ritos del pasado atrapaban nicamente en un anhelo de la Revo-
Research in New a un dirigible motorizado con residen- al hombre y le impediran renovarse. lucin, ni son slo consecuencia de los
York shows the work cias, talleres, almacenes y una plata- Los proyectos urbanos de Jidekel experimentos formales que llevaron a
of Lazar Khidekel, forma para el aterrizaje de aviones. han sido descritos fundamentalmente cabo los artistas que coincidieron con
author of rare Unos aos despus, en 1920, Bruno como una deriva plstica de las com- Malvich en la dcada de 1920. Otros
visions where city Taut incluy en su Alpine Architek- posiciones planas suprematistas de acontecimientos enlazados con tradi-
becomes territory. tur la arquitectura astral con la que Malvich. Es cierto que el lenguaje ciones genuinamente rusas fertilizaron
propona abandonar definitivamente que Jidekel emplea en muchas de estas estas visiones de mundos ingrvidos, y
la Tierra. Y en 1925, Frederick Kies- visiones es una variante del estable- las distinguen de aquellas dibujadas al
ler expuso en el pabelln austriaco de cido por Malvich en el proceso que tiempo en el resto de Europa.
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Anton Lavinski presented the model tion of social structures that would the plane of the paper, and the three- the de-urbanism suggestions of Mijail
of a city vertically stratified into vari- give rise to a new human being free dimensional planits and arkitektons. Ojitovich. His urban model strongly
ous superposed levels. In 1927 Viktor of attachments to the past. Hence the But beyond their formal genealogy, advocated the infrastructural char-
Kalmikov drew a city he named Sa- proposals for artificial territories Khidekels air-borne cities are exper- acter of the modern city and the criti-
turnii, a ring around Earths equator raised over preexisting ones (where, iments with space, halfway between cal importance of its connections and
which, in a stationary flight, could it was thought, traditions and rites of protoarchitectures floating in weight- systems of mobility. But these urban
be lifted and kept afloat in orbit. A the past trapped people, preventing less space and abstract compositions visions do not exclusively originate
year later, in 1928, as a student at them from renewing themselves). addressing specifically urban and from revolutionary longings, nor do
the VJUTEIN, Georgy Krutikov sub- Khidekels urban projects have architectural matters. they solely result from the formal ex-
mitted Gorod Budushchego, a mecha- mainly been described as aesthetic Khidekel proposed landscapes periments undertaken by the artists
nized flying city formed by commu- driftings from the suprematist flat where new links between built arti- who coincided with Malevich in the
nal productive rings and clusters of compositions of Malevich in the pro- fice and natural environment could be 1920s. Other events tied to genuinely
dwellings suspended in air and linked cess that goes from Black Square on forged, landscapes where these could Russian traditions fertilized these vi-
to them and to each other through in- a White Ground of 1915 to the more take shape and complement one an- sions of weightless worlds, and dis-
dividual flying cells. complex and colorist ones where geo- other in a vertical reinterpretation tinguish them from those drawn in
All of these aspired to the inven- metric elements hover tensely over of Howards garden-city, anticipating the same period elsewhere in Europe.
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From Cosmism to Suprematism material that would give them density the new artificial sky would create. drawings that were more detailed,
In 1903 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky pub- and weight. Others are executed as aerial axo- where one can discern a degree of
lished The Exploration of Cosmic Khidekel was lured by the prospect nometric drawings, some with water- vertical stratification, his transport
Space by Means of Reaction Devic- of flight and in 1920, with Chashnik, color and some with Chinese ink, that infrastructures and the assignment of
es, setting the bases of modern as- he had published the first issue of make them more technical. Here the uses to floor levels are only partial,
tronautics. The Russian physicist did the magazine AERO as a tribute to territory or landscape is seen from never conclusive, like early versions
not come up with ideas only through Tsiolkovsky. Thus, the fascination for above, and formal connections are of a big project to be developed later.
his formidable mathematical intu- mechanized flight, the overall view of made, determining the position or the Because the drawings were kept in
ition. In Moscow he came in contact suprematism that made it possible to form of the floating cities. the architects archives for decades,
with Nikolai Fyodorov, one of the imagine designing complete worlds, Khidekels proposals include spe- it is not possible to trace a genealogy
pioneers of the cosmism movement Malevichs abstract language amd cific geographies where forests, tilled linking them to subsequent versions
that tied up with a cosmic worldview his architectural drifting, and revo- fields, rivers and topographies have of floating cities and worlds, such as
so characteristic of Russian culture, lutionary optimism all tied up with an extraordinary, exceptional pres- those drawn up by Yona Friedman,
attributing moral values to science Russian cosmic thinking. Khidekels ence in the context of Soviet avant- Alan Boutwel, Eckhard Schulze-
and technique that, placed at the floating and abstract architectures gardes. The cities fly over these Fielitz or Constant, though some of
service of humanity, would make it became urban visions that he drew imagined geographies and establish their proposals have many elements
possible for an artificial world to up for ten years, until the impositions relationships with this imagined ter- in common with Khidekels. What
spring up that escaped the tyranny of of Stalinist classicism made him stop. ritory by making themselves denser makes them exceptional and pre-
nature, ultimately creating an immor- The richness and variety of these in some places, leaving spaces open, monitory, beyond the configuration
tal man. This artificial construction drawings is enormous. Some of these or expressing themselves on section, of his proposals, is the early three-
would dominate nature by regulating visions of the future are rendered in in accordance with the topography. dimensional treatment of the urban
atmospherical phenomena, then the watercolor on small sheets of paper But Khidekels cities in the air do fabric, and the view of a fully urban-
movement of the planets and the solar in pale greenish blue tones, and in not establish settlement structures ized world where the city can make
system, and finally the universe. perspectives viewed from below that and must not be taken as complete itself compatible with the geography
These cosmic visions of Fyodorov show the laconic atmosphere which urban projects. Although he did some and extract potential from it.
reached the artistic avant-gardes.
In 1915 the futuristic poet Velimir
Khlebnikov wrote the essay My i
doma, which described new light-
weight dwellings, crystalline and
transportable, that would form cities
floating in space, inhabited by flying
individuals. Like Khlebnikov, Malev-
ich envisioned the construction of a
cosmic city that would be the ultimate
consequence of suprematism.
In 1918 Khidekel enrolled at the
Vitebsk Fine Arts School, where he
became a student of Chagall, El Lis-
sitzky and Malevich, who captivat-
ed him. There he spent three years
drawing suprematist compositions.
When he finished in 1922, Khidekel
moved to Saint Petersburg to study
architecture at the School of Civil
Engineering, but continued to draw
suprematist compositions. These be-
came more and more complex, ar-
ticulated and three-dimensional, and
they were often done in axonometric
projections, giving rise to architec-
tures that were simple and in forma-
tion, afloat in an isotropic ether as
standardized elements waiting to be
assigned a use, a place, a size and a
Esbozo para una ciudad del futuro Sketch for a Futuristic City (1928-1932)
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