Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo, 1927. Octavos (34 × 24 cm). Original decorative wrappers by A. Gan; [1], 111–156, [2] pp. Illustrations throughout. In Russian and German. Wrappers professionally restored; light wear and chipping to corners; good or better.

A richly-illustrated anniversary issue of the leading journal of Constructivist architecture edited by the team of Aleksandr Vesnin (1883–1959) and Moisei Ginsburg (1892–1946), with wrapper design and layout by Alexei Gan (1887–1942). This issue is dedicated to the tenth anniversary of October Revolution, and includes architectural drawings, plans and models of famous unfinished projects such as the Vesnin brothers’ Dvorets truda (Palace of labor) and Ivan Leonidov’s Institut bibliotekovedenia im. Lenina (Lenin Library Sciences Institute). The latter, a VKhUTEMAS diploma work originally exhibited at The First International Exhibition of Contemporary Architecture in Moscow (1927), would come to symbolize Constructivist architecture more broadly. Anticipating the importance of the work, a fragment of the model was incorporated by Alexei Gan into the wrapper design for the issue. The issue also includes plans and photographs of the finished building for Gosstrakh employees in Moscow, designed by Moisei Ginsburg. Significantly altered after WWII, with the rooftop garden converted into another residential level and communal living spaces transformed into individual units, the images capture the building in its original form. The journal was published by the Ob’edinenie sovremennykh arkhitektorov (Union of Contemporary Architects; OCA), the main architectural organization of Constructivists, with the closing article discussing the work done by the group in the first year of the journal’s operation. Published once every two months, a total of 27 issues of CA appeared in 1926–1930. One of 2200 copies printed.

See The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910–1934 (MoMA Collection), p. 224.

As of April 2022, KVK, OCLC show individual issues at Cornell, Columbia, MoMA, NYPL, Toronto and the British Library.

Book ID: 51944

Price: $650.00