Melnikov House

In Krivoarbatsky Lane stands an unusual mansion with a workshop, built by architect Konstantin Melnikov for himself — one of the principal monuments of the Soviet architectural avant-garde. It is a rare example, for its time, of a single-family house in the center of Moscow: the building was designed by the architect himself for his family and stands out for its unusual cylindrical form, which became a hallmark of the entire movement.

Melnikov’s first sketches for a round house appeared as early as 1922, and the final concept — two cylinders intersecting one another — grew out of an unrealized competition entry for the Zuev Workers’ Club, which the architect called “an organ of five cylinders.” Having obtained a plot for development in Krivoarbatsky Lane, Melnikov built the house in 1927–1929 with his own funds, earned from designing garages, since he combined the roles of client and architect in one person and could afford complete creative freedom. City officials, upon seeing a model of the future building, unhesitatingly awarded the architect the plot, turning down other applicants.

The house’s composition consists of two cylinders of the same diameter but different heights, forming in plan something resembling the figure eight. The lower, front cylinder is topped with a flat roof and an open terrace, while the taller rear cylinder carries a sloping roof. The walls are built in a distinctive lattice pattern of red brick, forming around a hundred hexagonal openings: some were bricked up to save material, while the rest were fitted with windows — including 57 on the north façade — creating a rhythmic ornamental pattern. Above the main entrance is a relief inscription reading “KONSTANTIN MELNIKOV ARCHITECT,” and the interior layout is organized around spiral staircases linking the three storeys, with the architect’s studio at the top.

After Konstantin Melnikov’s death in 1974, his son Viktor, an artist, continued to live in the house and devoted his life to preserving his father’s legacy. The division of the estate among the heirs dragged on for decades of litigation, and in the early 2000s Viktor Melnikov publicly announced his intention to bequeath the house, together with its entire collection, to the state in order to preserve it as a unified museum complex. The long-running disputes among the architect’s descendants were only resolved by 2017.

Since 2011 the building has been cared for by the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, named after architect Alexei Shchusev, and three years later a new museum branch dedicated to the memory of Melnikov father and son opened on this basis, preserving the authentic interior and personal belongings of both. Since 2022 the interiors have been closed to visitors due to restoration work, though the garden and an external view of the building remain accessible.

The Melnikov House has long outgrown the status of a private building and is regarded as a manifesto of the architectural innovation of the 1920s, one that influenced several generations of architects around the world. The combination of a bold engineering idea, the architect’s personal creative freedom, and the dramatic fate of his legacy makes this building one of the most recognizable symbols of the Moscow avant-garde.