Constructivism in 1920s Architecture in Batumi (on the Example of Residential Houses)

Authors

  • Maia Tchitchileishvili PhD in Art History and Theory, Senior Researcher at Niko Berdzenishvili Institute, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University; Professor at Batumi Art State University https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2030-9948

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61671/bsrcc.v2i2.8730

Keywords:

ბათუმი, საბჭოთა არქიტექტურა, საცხოვრებელი სახლები, კონსტრუქტივიზმი, მოდერნიზმი.

Abstract

From the 1920s, the formation of Georgian Soviet architecture was connected to the ideological, political, socio-economic, cultural processes taking place in the new type of state. The goals and objectives of the architecture became part of the "monumental propaganda" program of the Communist Party. Constructivism in Soviet Russia was associated with the symbol of communist construction, the expression of building a new country.
In the architecture of Batumi, mass housing construction produced at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s was marked by large-scale constructivist-style dwellings. The widespread establishment of constructivist principles in the architecture of residential houses in Batumi in the 1920s may have been due to the official government's attitude towards Batumi as a modern industrial city. For this period, Batumi represented a workers' city, whose townscape was mainly created by the new modernist architecture with its complex settlements and residential houses with a new visual appearance. On the example of the presented samples, in the architecture of Batumi, preference is given to the flow of constructivism, in which the synthesis of national and modernist trends is less visible. The constructivist trends of the "international" direction, which are based on the dynamics of simple, concise, geometric, vertical-horizontal volumes and forms, are predominantly characteristic of Batumi buildings. Residential houses in Batumi are distinguished by the appearance of a complex or urban quarter development and play a great role in the creation of a spatial structure of urban planning. The tallest buildings defining the scale of the whole quarter are also designed with the principles of this style, which is the value of "Batumi Constructivism". These buildings, as well as samples of Tbilisi and other cities of Georgia (Abastumani, Tskaltubo, Borjomi, etc.), are an integral part of the interesting historical stage of Georgian culture with their artistic and architectural values.

Published

2025-02-21

How to Cite

Tchitchileishvili, M. (2025). Constructivism in 1920s Architecture in Batumi (on the Example of Residential Houses). BLACK SEA REGION AT THE CROSSROADS OF CIVILIZATIONS, 2(2), 615–642. https://doi.org/10.61671/bsrcc.v2i2.8730