Name
Theater of mass musical action for 4000 spectators in Kharkiv
Years of construction
Unconstructed
Architect
Address
Sumskaya street , Victory Square
A theater that was never built in Kharkiv
Competition for the theater of mass musical action for 4000 spectators in Kharkiv Dear readers! Let's go back almost a century… Imagine the significant 1930s… A new era, a young country, the newest creative ideas, movements, and trends… Also the progressive approach to architecture and urban planning. I hope you are interested in the past of our outstanding city and will allow me to guide you through a little-known but very interesting story… In the history of creative contests, the international competition for the design of the State Ukrainian theater of mass musical action for 4,000 spectators in Kharkiv is among the most significant ones. In the annotation for the architectural competition, announced in 1930, it was declared: “The project should be really new and original, and reflecting the ideological significance of the theater in the developing of Soviet culture, taking into account the tendencies of modern Soviet and foreign theaters concerning the shape and character of the auditorium and stage." According to the plan of city center' reconstruction, the building of the new theater was to be located on a rectangular square next to the highway which was connecting the historic center and Dzerzhinsky Square (now it is Freedom Square), where the large government building had already been built. Also, it was planned to build a panorama "Storm Perekop", Ukrainian Art Museum, and other buildings at this square. This design contest for the concept of mass theater in Kharkiv was largely based on the long history of theatrical art in the city. Indeed, in those days, there worked eminent playwrights who are still associated with the concepts of intellectualism, professionalism, and outstanding talent. And the most prominent of them is considered Les Kurbas, who managed to "europeanize" the Ukrainian theater, bring it to the world culture, and, most importantly, to enrich the world theater with his own theatrical system. In 1927, Les Kurbas had moved his theater "Beresil" to Kharkiv. At that time he had tested many modern ideas and already became one of the leaders of the Soviet theater avant-garde. It has to be said that these theater avant-garde experiments were kind of benchmarks for the design contest mentioned above. So, Kharkiv…, the Ukrainian capital of the time…, contest… just imagine that 143 projects that were submitted, and almost two-thirds of it were sent by architects from Germany, Sweden, Italy, USA, Japan, France. And among them were such architects as W. Gropius, A. Kastner, Zdenko Strižić, Kawakita, Norman Bell Geddes, and many others. The scale of the contest was outstanding. To compare, only 17 projects by local architects were submitted to a similar contest for Derzhprom design. Most of the projects for the theater in Kharkiv used a constructivist approach, but some designs were characterized by absolutely innovative approaches and avant-garde ideas. Thus, Alfred Kastner (USA), the winner of the award 1-a, in his project "Machine" proposed a huge number of transformations of the stage and auditorium, including the creation of an amphitheater around the central arena. Zdenko Strižić, a German architect of Croatian origin, proposed the spatial transformation of the two stages and won the I-b award for his project under the motto "Sector in a circle". The idea of stage opening to the urban environment was proposed in the project under the motto "1931" by Kharkiv architects Kostenko, Friedman, Movshovych, Steinberg (the I-c award). The project of Japanese architect Kawakita (award IV), which was submitted under the motto "R", envisaged 11 elevations for different actions. The architect also proposed about twenty ways to transform the scene. We should also point out the project of German architects Bozinger and Stonorov (Prize VI), submitted under the motto "OST 1930", which proposed the idea of the universality of the theater and the development of the creative process of mass theater. By the way, the modern idea of the Theater Laboratory was already envisioned in this project with its three-dimensional composition of the theater building. Some contesters suggested not to build the traditional theater with a stage but to create a huge theatrical environment including the street space that would allow mass actions. Others mentioned the newest sound simulators or scents involving. A famous German architect W. Gropius (the motto "Mass Center", Prize VIII) proposed a seemingly simple and ordinary design with screen walls that would allow seeing the theatrical performance to people outside. But the winner of the contest under the motto "Two intersecting circles" by Vesnin brothers: the inner space of the theater was seen as one volume, but the stage would transform for various theatrical and other mass actions, while the capacity of the hall could increase from 4000 to 6000 spectators. By the way, the architects themselves thought of the Kharkiv Theater project as their best achievement. The project was accepted, and the construction of few premises had begun, but for several socio-political and ideological-artistic reasons, this theater was never built. Alas... One reason for this could be a sharp ideological fight between different groups. Or, probably, the transfer of the USSR capital to Kyiv. Though, based on the analysis of the rare periodical, it was established that the main obstacle to the construction of this Kharkiv theater had never competed due to, to put it mildly, inappropriate use of public funds allocated for this construction. Even though this project was never implemented, the role of this contest can not be overestimated because all the architecture of the XX century was influenced by the creative ideas of its participants. Olena DUDKA
Theater of mass musical action for 4000 spectators in Kharkiv / Theater
Competitive project / Sumskaya street , Victory Square
Constructivism
Romanticism of Industrial Revolution
Influence of classical art
Constructivism
Art Deco
Influence of Ukrainian folk architecture
Influence of European Modern architecture