Melnikov's Models

The architectural models in the book and exhibition were made by students at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland, under the direction of Pavel Kuznetsov, between 2022 and 2024, when he was a visiting professor at the school and was lecturing on the Soviet avant-garde. More than two-dozen built and unbuilt Melnikov projects were documented by the students in models ranging from 1:1 scale to 1:25,000 (most were around 1:100). The majority of the original designs were done between 1922 and 1936, reflecting the fruitfulness of the avant-garde Vkhutemas school—often referred to as the “Soviet Bauhaus”—but also how Melnikov's architectural output basically ceased after Stalin's cultural turn in 1932. Following decades of silence, Melnikov reemerged in the early 1960s with a design for the USSR Pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City. Although it remained unbuilt, the project helped bring Melnikov out of isolation and introduce his output to a wider audience in the years leading up to his death in 1974. The same can be said about the models that were made in Mendrisio this decade and are drawing attention to Melnikov once again.