Last week I had an amazing opportunity to visit the Student Commune House (Студенческий Дом-Коммуна) designed by the architect Ivan Nikolaev. Vsevolod Kulish from the Moscow Architecture University (МАРХИ) is supervising the restoration of this site and he was eager to share what makes the Commune House so special as a monument of CONSTRUCTIVIST architecture. Built in 1929-1931, it was a social and architectural experiment in the type of building, combining FUNCTION with innovation. Originally designed to house 2000 students in a communal layout (separate sections for living space, public services, and common study area), the goal was to create an environment to optimize student life, and in the beginning the systemization of students’ time was quite regimented. The building was constructed with numerous ingenious architectural features, and the current restoration aims to keep as much of the original design as possible and most importantly, the building will once again function as student dormitories.
More information about the history of the building and the restoration work can found at the restoration project’s website: http://www.communagallery.ru/history/?lang=en
And other places on the web:
http://architectuul.com/architecture/communal-house-of-the-textile-institute
http://www.origindesignstudio.co.uk/blog/world-architecture-soviet-russia-part-one.html
Mr. Kulish is passionate about properly restoring the building to its former architectural splendor, while making it a viable space in modern times. As he put it, it is a huge space that deserves to be alive and not left in disrepair like a dead corpse (modifications to the original structure, neglect, and fire damage put the building in a dire state).
Pictured above, V. Kulish resting on a railing like a captain at the helm of a ship.
MORE photos of STUDENT COMMUNE HOUSE
On my recent trips to photograph inside the Commune House I had seen the place empty and quiet. On opening night, a crowd of people made their way up the gently sloping ramps to admire a huge hanging photograph of a nude figure (a piece that stretched across the building’s seven stories). 
