Functional Method Of Constructivism From Moisei Ginzburg

Moisei Ginzburg(1892-1946),who is the leading theorist and par excellence architect of constructivism in the Soviet Union.His leading role in modern architecture is not only due to his rich architectural practices,but also for his establishment of systematic constructivism theory in architecture,which embodies the design paradigm of functional rationality and spatial perception.As Frampton said,Ginzburg belongs to that rare class of accomplished designers who,without relinquishing their vocation,find time for polemics and for the formulation of a coherent body of theory.Ginzburg was keenly aware of the characteristics of the epoch and found the development direction of modern architecture.Actually,his reflections on architectural design continued his whole career and provided an authoritative guide to Soviet constructivist architecture.And his influence spread to the German modern architecture movement and even the whole modernism movement,in which we can find the clues of modern space production theory.Nowadays Ginzburg’s architectural design ideas still provide a lot of inspiration for today’s rational design methods.This paper will carry out relevant research as the lack of thematic research on functional method in China.This study takes the text of Ginzburg’s works as the main object,analyzes the context of Ginzburg’s time,discusses the purpose and motivation,constitutive logic,specific content,ideological characteristics of the functional method,and points out its historical limitations.Through the above research,the complexity and unity of the functional method are clarified.This paper captures two features of functional method,which are machine and sociality.Firstly,functional method completes the transformation of modern architecture from machine symbol to machine paradigm,and provides inspiration for functional rational design;Secondly,it’s not a single functionalist,which also emphasizes the organization of spatial perception based on experimental psychology.Through the above research,this paper illustrates the monistic nature of functional method and points out its far-reaching influence.This method has not only become one of the important sources of modern functional rationality,forming the embryonic form of modern architectural design process,but also become an important basis for the practice of space production,and stimulate the postmodern thinking about the construction of social space.Although this method is more than one hundred years ago,it bring on the value of today’s architectural design theory,also has the great reference significance for the development of architectural autonomy.