Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Tatlin's Tower

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Status
  
Never built

Construction started
  
Never

Artist
  
Period
  
Genres
  
Kinetic art, Abstract art

Architectural style
  
Constructivism

Height
  
400 m (1,300 ft)

Location
  
Private collection

Created
  
1920

Tatlin's Tower World History Connected Vol 11 No 1 Ralph Croizier Tatlin39s

Former names
  
Monument to the Third International

Type
  
Monument, Communications, Conferences, Government, etc.

Similar
  
Constructivism artwork, Abstract art

Tatlin’s Tower, or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), was a design for a grand monumental building by the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin, that was never built. It was planned to be erected in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern (the third international).

Contents

Tatlin's Tower World History Connected Vol 11 No 1 Ralph Croizier Tatlin39s

Tatlin s tower


Plans

Tatlin's Tower World History Connected Vol 11 No 1 Ralph Croizier Tatlin39s

Tatlin's Constructivist tower was to be built from industrial materials: iron, glass and steel. In materials, shape and function, it was envisaged as a towering symbol of modernity. It would have dwarfed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The tower's main form was a twin helix which spiraled up to 400 m in height, around which visitors would be transported with the aid of various mechanical devices. The main framework would contain four large suspended geometric structures. These structures would rotate at different rates. At the base of the structure was a cube which was designed as a venue for lectures, conferences and legislative meetings, and this would complete a rotation in the span of one year. Above the cube would be a smaller pyramid housing executive activities and completing a rotation once a month. Further up would be a cylinder, which was to house an information centre, issuing news bulletins and manifestos via telegraph, radio and loudspeaker, and would complete a rotation once a day. At the top, there would be a hemisphere for radio equipment. There were also plans to install a gigantic open-air screen on the cylinder, and a further projector which would be able to cast messages across the clouds on any overcast day.

Evaluations

Tatlin's Tower tatlin39s tower Google Search Memorials Pinterest

Even if the gigantic amount of required steel had been available in bankrupt post-revolutionary Russia, in the context of housing shortages and political turmoil, there are serious doubts about its structural practicality.

Tatlin's Tower httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Symbolically, the tower was said to represent the aspirations of its originating country and a challenge to the Eiffel Tower as the foremost symbol of modernity. Soviet critic Viktor Shklovsky is said to have called it a monument "made of steel, glass and revolution."

Models

Tatlin's Tower Tatlin39s Tower BLDGBLOG

There are models of Tatlin’s Tower at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, at Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, and at Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. A 1:42 model was built at The Royal Academy of Arts, London in November 2011. In 1989 the firm Edra produced a sofa named "Tatlin" inspired to the tower, designed by Mario Cananzi e Roberto Semprini.

Description

Tatlin's Tower Tatlin39s tower The CharnelHouse

  • Native name: Памятник III Интернационалу
  • Location: Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
  • Status: cancelled
  • Constructed: Never
  • Building uses: monument, communications, conferences, government, other
  • Structural types: other, flag, revolving floor, sign, truss
  • Materials: glass, steel, iron
  • Height: 400 m (1,312 ft)
  • It was designed to surpass the Eiffel Tower by a third part of its height.
  • Architect: Vladimir Tatlin
  • Team "Creative Collective": Iosif A. Meerzon, Pavel Vinogradov, Tevel Markovich Shapiro
  • Its tilt is the same as Earth: 23.5 degrees.
  • The cube was designed to host the congresses of the Third International and make a full rotation each year. The pyramid would make a spin in 30 days and would be the place for the bureaucracy. The thin cylinder was to revolve in a day and host a newspaper. A radio station was to be placed in the little dome at the top.
  • Structure style: constructivism
  • References

    Tatlin's Tower Wikipedia