Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin 1978-1993: Architectural Projections of Social, Political, and Environmental Turmoil

MS REPORT

My research report aimed to situate prominent figures of the 1980s Russian “paper architecture” movement, Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, within the greater context of visionary architecture. This tradition of experimenting with speculative realms can be traced back to the 18th century French visionary architects and more notoriously, the 19th-20th century works of Ebenezer Howards’ Garden Cities of Tomorrow (1898) and Le Cobusier’s Ville Radieuse (1930). The 1980s movement demonstrated a shift away from purely utopian schemes and held more of a consciousness for how we interface with culture and ecology. It moved beyond the previous fixation with emerging technology, as made evident within the 1920s avant-garde. Seeking to challenge perceptions of architecture, as well as its potential, Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin speculated through a fragmented lens that was disenchanted with Soviet society. Being that they were operating during the final decade of a 70-year totalitarian regime, their etchings became both a reflection and a projection of architecture’s agency to render various conditions of violence. Thus, asserting that “paper architecture” isn’t merely a repository of unbuilt drawings that never become realized, but rather a critical commentary on the modern city and a medium through which to examine situations of cultural crisis.

Carly Bonsignore