Asnova

(full name, Association of New Architects). ASNOVA was a union of architects, engineers, and artists, founded in 1923 by the teachers of the State Higher Institute of Art and Technology, or VKhUTEMAS (the architects N. A. Ladovskii, V. F. Krinskii, N. V. Dokuchaev, A. M. Rukhliadev, L. M. Lisitskii, A. V. Bunin; the artists A. M. Rodchenko, B. D. Korolev; the engineer A. F. Loleit and others). The members of ASNOVA were concerned with the problems of creating an artistically expressive, emotion-filled, and rhythmically sharp architectural form, based on the newest building materials and structural components and taking into consideration the objective psychological and physiological laws of human perception of volume, space, and color. The members of ASNOVA advanced the idea of a qualitatively new architecture on the basis of a synthesis of the plastic arts. For example, new emblems and revolutionary slogans, which were executed in sculpture, painting, and the decorative arts, were introduced into architecture. The group completed a number of commissioned competitive projects, which won awards at the International Exhibition in Paris (1925)—for example, the Theater of Mass Musical Performance in Kharkov. One issue of Izvestiia ASNOVy (Asnova Bulletin) was published (1926), as well as the collection Arkhitektura VKhUTEMAS (1927). In 1930, ASNOVA merged with the Moscow section of the All-Union Architectural Scientific Society.