Architect I. P. Tomashevsky and his Environment (2023)
А. В. Вознесенский, Е. С. Князева. Архитектор И. П. Томашевский и его окружение // Архитектурное наследство. Выпуск 79. 2023.
An article in Russian, by Anton Woznessensski and me, on the career of the prolific modernist architect Ilarion Tomashevsky, active in Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to what we knew of Tomashevsky’s China projects, Anton identified numerous objects in the Ural Mountains region and Siberia. Initially, we thought that Tomashevsky’s works from the Soviet period were limited to a handful of small industrial buildings, but Anton discovered more works, including an entire town planning project for Kizel, in Perm region.
Abstract
The article focuses on the life and the work of the architect Ilarion Tomashevsky (1909-1965) whose career started in Shanghai, China, and continued in the Soviet Union. Tomashevsky’s Shanghai projects, executed in the 1930s and 1940s, testify to his successful adoption of the cultural and aesthetic vocabulary of the cosmopolitan Asian city and his mastery of the most up-to-date construction methods. In particular, a series of “midget apartments,” ingeniously fitted into the irregular lots and the low-rise urban landscape, have become a unique and valued characteristic of the historic downtown. After the repatriation to the Soviet Union in 1947, the architect’s creativity and high productivity were unimpeded even by the vastly different work environment, reduced construction budgets and a rigid organizational framework. By presenting both stages of Tomashevsky’s career in a continuous narrative and by situating them in their historical and geographical context, this research contributes to the history of the Russian diaspora as well as the Soviet architectural history.
The magazine Architectural Heritage: https://www.archiheritage.org/items/638/135/arhitektor-i-p-tomashevskij-i-ego-okruzhenie.html
Abstract and info in Russian and English: https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=69321719