In the history of building, Moisei Ginzburg is one of the names that keeps returning.
The record lists Moisei Ginzburg as Russian architect, Soviet writer (1892–1946).
Moisei Ginzburg was born in 1892. His recorded nationality is Russian Empire.
Modernism rejected ornament and historical style, arguing that a building should express its structure and its function - a claim contested ever since.
An architect is judged by how a building is used a century after the drawings.
That the work was built in Russian Empire shaped it: climate, materials, planning law and who holds the budget all decide what can actually be built.
Moisei Ginzburg died in 1946, aged 54. The buildings remain, still in use by people who never knew the name - which is the particular afterlife architecture offers.
