Wolkenbügel: El Lissitzky as Architect

Join us for the book launch of Wolkenbügel

How a visionary, never-realised architectural project, devised by one of the twentieth century's greatest artists, shaped architectural culture in Europe between the world wars.

After achieving international acclaim as a painter and designer, El Lissitzky set out in 1924 to convince the world—and himself—that he was also an architect. He did this with a project for a “horizontal skyscraper,” which he gave an obscure and untranslatable name: Wolkenbügel. Eight of these buildings, perched atop slender pillars, were intended to stand at major intersections along Moscow's Boulevard Ring, integrating the flow of tramlines, subways, and elevators. In Wolkenbügel, Richard Anderson explores Lissitzky's translation of visual and textual media into spatial ideas and offers an in-depth study of the surviving drawings and archival artifacts related to Lissitzky's most complex architectural proposal.

We are delighted to welcome Richard, Kenneth Frampton, and Michał Murawski to the AA Bookshop to celebrate the launch of this new publication over refreshments.

The book will be sold at the special price of £50 (RRP £59)