The Experimental Students’ Hostel, designed by Ivan Sergeevich Nikolayev: Architecture of the Personal Minimum
Marianna Evstratova
In 1929, a students’ hostel was designed by Ivan Sergeevich Nikolayev, the winner of the All-Union contest to design a communal student house. It consisted of three buildings, each with a different use but united by their cohesive aim, based upon a complete re-evaluation of both educational processes and the daily patterns of student life. In the ‘Day Stay Building’ were classrooms, an assembly hall, library, canteen and an entrance hall. The ‘Sanitary Building’ had facilities for students to spend time between studies and sleep, and it included individual cabins for changing and showering. Afterwards, students would go to sleep in the ‘Bedroom Building’, where there were square 6 meter sleeping cabins for two people, a design that aimed to reduce personal space to a minimum.
Meeting point: University of Friendship of Peoples tram stop, 9 Ordzhonikidze Str.
Availability is limited. Please register in advance by calling +7 (495) 645-0520.
Marianna Evstratova is an architect and the Chief Curator of the Museum of Architecture. She is the Chief Specialist in Architecture of the Soviet period for the Moscow Heritage Committee, the Chief Curator of the Russian Avant-Garde Foundation and Professor of the International Academy of Architecture (Moscow Branch). She graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture. She is currently overseeing the restoration of the Students’ Hostel and has been part of the creative team on the project Engineering Art of Early Art Nouveau: Shukhov’s Strategies in the Design of Light Metal Constructions. She is currently working on a publication about the history of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VSKhV) in 1923, examining Schusev’s archives.
