The 1925 Workers’ Club renovation embodies the codes of Constructivist and Soviet design
The Art Ross Foundation and the Stroganov State Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts in Moscow reproduce faithfully arranged original design
Founder constructivist, painter and painter Alexander Rodchenko originally designed the Workers’ Club of the USSR as part of the Soviet Pavilion; It debuted at the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts in Paris, with its clean, uncluttered design and stark graphic form that quickly set the standards for early Soviet design.
Now, students and graduates of the Stroganov State Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts in Moscow have recreated the Workers’ Club as part of an agreement with Art Ross. The group used sketches and drawings from the family archives of Alexander Rodchenko, made available by the artist’s grandson and Stroganov Academy professor Alexander Lavrentiev, when creating the interior, which was designed as an efficient and usable space.
The Workers Club has been recreated by and for Furniture Design Students
Familiar features from the original have been faithfully recreated using materials and techniques available in the early 20th century. The chess table was revived by furniture designer Nikolai Golikov and comes complete with structural wooden chess pieces designed by Lavrentiev and his wife Irina Vasnetsova in 1976. A picture easel with hex detailing and convertible desks and bookshelves have also been recreated authentically.
“In many respects, the goals and objectives of the workers’ club as an institution correspond to the goals and objectives of the educational group, which, in essence, is what the department of a higher educational institution represents, especially the department related to design,” of the Furniture Design Department of the Stroganov Academy and project participant Kirill Cheburashkin. Our workers club is a living space where students study and rest. We now have a unique opportunity to monitor and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the recreated club. And as professionals, to search for compromises between the authentic aesthetics and the modern functional requirements of the administrative and educational space. The aim of the project was to enable the realization of a beautiful century-old utopia that became a hallmark of Soviet furniture design.
The Clone Workers’ Club would remain at the Stroganoff Academy, while a second copy was shipped to France to join the Russian art collection at the Château la Grâce Dieu des Prieurs in Saint-Émilion. §
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