La Préfabrication en URSS

In 1955 Nikita Khrushchev, the then First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, launched a campaign to promote mass housing. The Soviet Union was to solve its persistent housing crisis within a short span of time by harnessing the possibilities of industrial prefabrication. This was a watershed moment that would radically change the construction industry and the practice of architecture. Within just a couple of years, the richly ornamented buildings of the Stalin era gave way to sober, factory-made constructions whose only decoration was in the layout of their panels. This book presents the full manuscript of Natalya Solopova’s doctoral thesis, defended at the University of Paris 8. It seeks to present a complete historical account of prefabricated housing in the Soviet Union, from its origins and influences to its ubiquitous implementation. The goal of this ambitious project is ultimately to confer on Soviet mass housing the recognition it deserves as one of the defining events of international architecture in the 20th century. It is a timely work, especially in light of the recent efforts towards rehabilitating Soviet Modernism.