Unbuildable Tatlin?!

Vladimir Tatlin’s (1885–1953) world famous monument design for the III International dating back to 1919 is considered an icon of Russian constructivism. All the demands made of revolutionary design as employed by Soviet cultural propaganda were taken to an extreme in this Utopian design. Tatlin’s monument was designed to be 400 meters tall, making it one hundred meters taller than the Eiffel Tower. It stood for the belief in a new architecture with its playful ignorance of constructive logic. But could Tatlin’s monument be built today, could it have been built in 1920? Students at the Institute of Architecture of the Vienna University of Applied Arts carefully explored the constructive circumstances before they finally subjected the monument itself to a close examination. Model photos taken in 1920 were three dimensionally reconstructed with the help of the University’s geometry department. The answers to the key questions won’t be revealed here, but: they were found and are shown in the book in an engaging and exciting manner.