Unrealized project: the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry building at the "The Birth of Scale" exposition

The competition to design the building for the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry was announced in 1934. One of the projects was proposed by the renowned Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov. The building was supposed to be located on Red Square, where the current GUM department store now stands.

The architect envisioned a massive structure with a complex configuration. The central axis of the building was to align with the axis of Lenin's Mausoleum, and its height would have exceeded that of the towers of the Moscow Kremlin. The plan of the building resembled a park rather than a traditional architectural structure. All elements of the intricate composition of the building and the surrounding area had triangular shapes formed by "Roman fives." Wide staircases leading to Red Square would have been topped with enormous rings resembling mechanical parts. However, the jury considered this project to be utopian.

"The building of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry had a difficult fate. Melnikov's project was never brought to life. Later, there were plans to build a different project on the site of today’s Zaryadye Park. It was supposed to be the eighth Stalinist high-rise. But it, too, was never realized — the construction was frozen. A strange turn of events," says Igor Sorokin, a tour guide at the National Centre RUSSIA.

"The Birth of Scale" exposition at the National Centre RUSSIA showcases completed architectural projects as well as ideas that remain only as concepts. The exposition consists of both the National Centre RUSSIA's own display items and those provided by museums and private collectors across the country.

Partners of the exposition "The Birth of Scale" include DOM.RF, the Ministry of Construction of Russia, Gazprom, the State Research Museum of Architecture named after A. V. Shchusev, the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the Yakov Chernikhov Charitable Architectural Foundation, and the HSE School of Design.