>sotgorod/ brigade ernst may/ mart stam

Mart Stam seems to have always been present when modernism was at its peak. He worked for the Dutch architecture office Brinkman and Van der Vlugt during the design of the Van Nelle Factories in Rotterdam, in which city he often frequented the meeting place of progressive architects 'Opbouw'. In 1923 he left for Zurich, where he founded the 'ABC Beitrage zum Bauen'-magazine with Hans Schmidt, Hannes Meyer and El Lissitzky.

He started working for Ernst May in Frankfurt in 1925 and designed the famous Hellerhof Siedlung. Once a week, he gave lessons at the Bauhaus of Meyer. He was one of the founding members of the CIAM. And through his friendship with El Lissitzky, he became a member of the Soviet based constructivist group ASNOVA. It is hardly surprising that Mart Stam was among the group of modern architects surrounding Ernst May, which left for Moscow in October 1930.

Mart Stam: "As long as thousands of fathers can hardly pay the rent. As long as thousands of big families live in small spaces, expensive individual favourite pursuits of architects are inadmissible.

Mart Stam in Magnitogorsk
Mart Stam at Gorstroi Project
Mart Stam winding up his stay in the Soviet Union
Mart Stam on functionalism