Nikolai Kolli

Summary

Nikolai Dzhemsovich (Yakovlevich) Kolli (Russian: Николай Джемсович (Яковлевич) Колли; 17 August [O.S. 5 August] 1894 – 3 December 1966) was a Soviet and Russian Modernist—Constructivist architect, architectural functionary, and city planner in the Soviet Union.[1]

Nikolai Kolli
Kolli in 1935
Born
Nikolai Dzhemsovich Kolli

17 August [O.S. 5 August] 1894
Died3 December 1966(1966-12-03) (aged 72)
Moscow, Soviet Union
OccupationArchitect
Tsentrosoyuz building (1933), Moscow,
collaboration with Le Corbusier.
Chistye Prudy station of the Moscow Metro (vintage image).

History edit

Kolli was born in Moscow, and studied at the Imperial Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and then at the Leninist VKhUTEMAS in Moscow.[1]

He first came to attention with a 1918 proposal for a monument celebrating the victory of the Red Army over Tzarist General Krasnov, in the form of a red wedge cleaving a block of white stone. It became an image that artist El Lissitzky subsequently appropriated in "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge."

Nikolai Kolli is buried in the Vvedenskoye Cemetery.[2]

Modernism edit

Nikolai Kolli studied under Ivan Zholtovsky as one of his "Twelve Disciples." In the late 1920s became a member of both the Soviet OSA Group (Union of Contemporary Architects), and a delegate to the international CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne) architectural group.

From 1928 to 1932 he lived part-time in Paris, assisting Le Corbusier in that architect's only built work in Moscow, the Tsentrosoyuz building (Central Cooperative Alliance offices).[3][1]

Career edit

Kolli taught at the N. E. Bauman Moscow Higher Technical School from 1920 to 1941, and at the Moscow Institute of Architecture from 1931 to 1941.[1]

From 1935 to 1951 he headed the Moscow branch of the Soviet Union of Architects.

Works edit

The works of Nikolai Kolli include:

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i The Free Dictionary: Nikolai Dzhemsovich Kolli . accessed 11.23.2013
  2. ^ Vvedenskoe.pogost.info: Nikolai Kolli, buried in Vvedenskoye Cemetery
  3. ^ a b The Charnel-House blog: Nikolai Kolli and Le Corbusier’s Tsentrosoiuz building in Moscow (text & vintage images) . accessed 11.23.2013.
  • The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979).
  • “Arkhitektor N. Ia. Kolli.” Arkhitektura SSSR, 1964, no. 12.