The Bauhaus Building in Dessau as an Architectural Prototype of the Factory Apprenticeship School in the USSR

Abstract

This article examines the specific development of the architecture of a new building type – the factory apprenticeship school – in the context of the economic and political development of the Soviet state. By assessing the objective factors that drew domestic and foreign developments closer together, it is proposed that the development of the planning structure and architectural appearance of factory apprenticeship schools at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s was influenced by an outstanding example of modern architecture – the Bauhaus building in Dessau by architect Walter Gropius. To compare with the German prototype, officially published factory apprenticeship school building designs of the period were selected. They were evaluated and compared based on the number of students, the purpose and composition of the premises, their area, the grouping into zones and blocks, variations in the overall planning configuration, and the principles of building composition. This made it possible to identify the similarities and differences between the architecture of the prototype and the design solutions for factory apprenticeship schools, and to substantiate the proposed research hypothesis.