Образцовые интерьеры на советских выставках рубежа 1950-х – 1960-х годов

Abstract

Photographs of exemplary apartments widely published in Soviet advice literature of the 1960s influenced the Soviet generation’s ideas about what the appropriate modern dwelling should look like. Although the publications do not provide the date or location of the photos, this article demonstrates that almost all of them were shot at four furniture exhibitions in Moscow: at the furniture display in the architectural models of flats at the Permanent Building Exhibition (1958); at the “Art in the Everyday” exhibition (1961); and at the exhibitions of two union-wide contests for the best furniture (1958 and 1961). The photos depict not real dwellings, but rather ephemeral mock-ups filled with furniture that, in most cases, was never put into production.

Keywords

• the thaw
• soviet design
• soviet furniture
• exemplary apartment
• furniture exhibitions
• mid-century modern
• advise literature