Uncompleted Construction Project

In 1927, the frame of the State Industry House in Kharkiv was almost built. It was clear for everyone that the city got a new administrative center, but the results of competition for the construction of the next building alongside the State Industry House (Derzhprom) were unexpected. Designing of a building for a more significant institution, namely the Government House, next to the Derzhprom failed. The building was supposed to occupy a central position in the composition of the square, but that position was already firmly held by the Derzhprom. However, architect Oleksandr Ivanovych Dmytriiev proposed a solution to construct the buildings next to the Derzhprom that would not be more significant by their value but occupy larger areas and complement the Kharkiv State Industry House. In spring of 1929, it was decided to build the House of Cooperation on the right side of the Derzhprom to accommodate central cooperative institutions of the republic which would manage agriculture of the USSR. Given that the fundamental design solutions for the building had already been received and paid during the competition for the Government House, designing of the House of Cooperation was ordered to O.I. Dmitriev without any additional competition. This decision greatly angered young architects of Kharkiv, who were deprived of the opportunity to compete for such a serious order, on the one hand, and they believed the House of Cooperation design looked rather archaic as of the year 1929, on the other hand. It happened not only because the House was a rework of the previous project of 1927. It was difficult for the agricultural unions to obtain reinforced concrete materials, which were novelty industrial materials, but they had access to bricks and ordered the architect to rework the project for another material. Unfortunately, bricks may only simulate the modernist architectural solutions and the details that made the house less modern.  In addition, the principle of O.I. Dmitriev was to create the complex around closed courtyards, which he considered the best solution for administrative buildings compared to the open courtyards. The open courtyards would show off the interior of the institution, they were created to demonstrate the new ideal life of the future. For example, the Derzhprom utility yard was planned for visiting as a permanent exhibition of modern technology. O.I. Dmitriev believed, based on his long experience, that a convenient administrative building should have both open spaces for visitors, which he designed in front of the central block, and spaces closed to outsiders, suitable for internal processes of the institution.  In 1930, the cooperative movement in the USSR started to phase out and the need for such a large building disappeared, and the capital of the USRS was moved to Kyiv, the started construction was transferred to the military institution newly established in 1935 ― Military Economic Academy of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, which was named after V.M. Molotov in 1939. The project of the new rework was entrusted to a large team of Kharkiv architects, among who was Petro Yukhymovych Shpara, and Oleksandr Ivanovych Dmytriiev remained the team consultant. By 1941, they managed to build the eastern block of the Academy, in which classes were given; and in September 1941, they planned to open the western block, which was meant for barracks for cadets. The construction of the high-rise central block was continually postponed because that high-rise section was designed with a metal frame requiring extra-large shapes according to the calculations, and launching of rolling mills for the production of such shapes in the USSR was constantly postponed. After World War II, the restored side blocks of the building housed the newly established Military Artillery Radiolocation School. The new rework of the project and completion of the building continued under the direction of P.Yu. Shpara, but with a different composition of the project team. The construction was completed only in 1954. Over the construction period, the complex changed several styles: laconic constructivism, the period of classics mastering, copious post-war Stalinist Art Deco, and the start of fighting the embellishment. Still through the efforts of architects, the building still preserved a unified image set by O.I. Dmitriev in 1927. Olha Shvydenko