Derzhprom (House of State Industry)

Derzhprom (Gosprom) House of State Industry. Among all city planning decisions made in Kharkiv in 1925-1936, the most interesting one is the ensemble on central Svobody Square. It represents the whole era of Soviet architecture development which is now called the era of constructivism. It had being built from 1926 to 1928.

Right after it was built, the building was the highest skyscraper in the USSR and, as some sources state, even in Europe. It still impresses even now: the height of Derzhprom is 63 meters, and together with TV tower installed in 1955 - 108 meters. Useful space is about 60 square meters.

Derzhprom building was built as a “floating formwork” (the best at that time technique) and de facto is a one-piece array of concrete. This is why the building is so strong. For example, during German occupation in the World War II when they tried to blow up the building, its monolithic reinforced concrete constructions didn’t even crack.

In the original project there were no internal partitions inside the building. The facade of the building is turned to the east so that the setting sun could shine through it. In combination with lengthy glazing it produced an effect of space, volume and ethereality. During sunset the windows were supposed to burn in fire.

They started building Derzhprom only with the help of man and horse power. There were used basic, primitive devices and equipment: shovels, litter, wheelbarrows, etc. Only by the end of the construction about 80% of the work was mechanized. By the way, the reconstruction of Derzhprom performed using most advanced modern technology, has already exceeded the time spent on the construction with primitive methods in the 1920s. It took them three years to build Derzhprom while the reconstruction is still ongoing.

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Derzhprom (House of State Industry)

Derzhprom (House of State Industry)

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