Paper Architecture. An Anthology

The first comprehensive publication covering the history of paper architecture, a unique phenomenon of the Soviet 1980s 

Architect and curator Yuri Avvakumov explores the legendary movement of paper architects which the author himself was an avid representative of. Paper architecture—a variation of conceptualism in architecture that circulated in the form of journal publications, exhibitions, and competitions of ideas—was the product of nonconformist reflection which appropriated languages and tropes of various architectural style for the creation of multivalent project designs.

Paper architecture brings together the visual means of expression typical of fine arts, architecture proper, literature, and theater. The book features texts and works by all the key participants of the movement, including Yuri Avvakumov, Mikhail Belov, Alexander Brodsky, Lev Evzovich, Totan Kuzembaev, Vyachslav Mizin, Ilya Utkin, and Mikhail Philippov.

About the author

Yuri Avvakumov (b. 1957, Tiraspol) is an architect, artist, and curator. He graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute (MARKHI) in 1981 and has participated in architectural and art exhibitions since 1982. In 1984, Avvakumov coined the term “paper architecture” to signify agenre of conceptual architectural design in the USSR in the 1980s. He has curated numerous exhibitions about paper architecture in Russia and abroad, includingin Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Ljubljana, Milan, Moscow, Paris, and Frankfurt. 

In 1996, Avvakumov represented Russia at the 6th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice with the installation Russian Utopia. A Depository. In 2008, he displayed the installation BornHouse in the Church of San Stae, also in Venice.He is currently focused on museum exhibition design. Avvakumov’s works are in the collections of Pushkin State Museum of FineArts (Moscow), the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg), the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), the German Architecture Museum (Frankfurt), and many others. He lives and works in Moscow.

The book is published with the support of Andrey Cheglakov Foundation.