CONSTRUCTIVIST MEDICAL COMPLEXES OF URALS IN THE ERA OF 1920es AND 1930es: ARCHITECTURE AND EXPOSITION

Abstract

The paper deals with the analysis of geographical localization and architectural exterior of the large medical structures and complexes erected in Ural region during the period of forced industrialization in 1920es – 1930es. The total number of constructivist medical complexes is roughly 25 units in 12 cities of Urals, and they share the key stylistic features both in appearance and in exposition. The most prominent complexes are located in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk, which, being the regional administrative centers, account for almost one-fifth of them. Most of the medical buildings, however, were erected in smaller industrial centers – Nadezhdinsk (Serov), Solikamsk, Berezniki, Lysva, Niznhy Tagil, Kamensk-Uralskii, Troitsk, Verkhnii Ufalei, Zlatoust, and Satka. In roughly a dozen years, the overall number of large medical complexes constructed in cities of Urals reached or even exceeded the overall number of medical complexes constructed during the previous hundred of years, and thus the intensity of construction in the field of healthcare increased greatly in the time of industrialization. Thus, the constructivist buildings which we describe, are representing coherent and important part of the national heritage both in terms of cultural legacy of Soviet avantgarde and in terms of the history of key moment in the development of Russian healthcare system which, since that moment, became massively spread. However, the allocation of the newly erected structures was rather lopsided, since the deployment of medical infrastructure depended not only upon the priorities of industrialization but also upon the base that already existed and upon the deficit of resources, which was especially bad in the new construction sites.