Designed by: Moisei Yakovlevich Ginzburg

Guinzburg and his disciple Milinis projected this complex to house the workers of the People's Commissariat for Finance (Soviet Ministry of Finance, shortened Narkomfin). The Narkomfin building showed the results of the typological investigation carried out by the Standardization Department of the Stroikom (Commissariat for Construction), leaded by Guinzburg; highlighting the type F, which inspired Le Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation. The original project consisted of four buildings: a housing block, a communal block, a kindergarten and a service yard; only the first two blocks were built. The building has suffered an ongoing decay since it was finished: the first inhabitants complained against the uncomfortable conditions caused by the collective way of life proposed and modified the dwellings; the ground level was closed to build more dwellings. Narkomfin's current state is critical, needing an urgent restoration; nevertheless several people keep living on this modernism masterpiece.

Contributed to www.mimoa.eu by Jose_Garcia