Posokhin, Mikhail Vasil'yevich

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Posokhin, Mikhail Vasil'yevich (1910–89). Russian architect. He worked with Shchusev in the 1930s before establishing a partnership with Ashot Mndoyants (1909–66). Projects included the Moscow Council Building (1943–5) and the offices in Znamenka Street, Moscow (1943–5—a heavy Neo-Classical composition). Posokhin adopted Western notions of urban renewal as can be seen in his brutal destruction of historic fabric and the design of the Kalinin Prospect (1962–8—now New Arbat), with its huge housing and office tower-blocks rising from a base of shops, cinemas, restaurants, etc. It became a paradigm, and was widely imposed throughout the USSR, in climatic and cultural contexts to which it was wholly unsuited.

Bibliography

Cruickshank (ed.) (1996);
Jane Turner (1996)

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