he Constructivists began publishing a journal, Sovremennaia Arkhitektura (Contemporary Architecture), showcasing Constructivist work as well as articles by opponents and articles about the avant-garde in other countries, including the Bauhaus.

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The two-pages spread from Sovremennaia Arkhitektura, dedicated to Bauhaus

Dermetfak—a true design school. 

Despite resistance to an experimental design laboratory, industrial design was successfully practiced in two of the school’s departments: metal-working (Metfak), headed by Rodchenko, who also devised the syllabus, which focused on fold-away and multi-use furniture (ranging from display boards to hydroplanes; and woodworking (Derfak). The two merged in 1926 to become a single department (Dermetfak), headed by Kiselev and Lavinsky; Lissitsky, who pushed for Derfak to become a department of interior design under the architecture department, is overruled. The new department was comprised of two independent divisions: “art design of metal equipment and armatures” (headed by Rodchenko) and “furniture design and interior decoration” (headed by Lissitsky). The departments, taught by Rodchenko, Lavinsky, Lissitsky, and Tatlin, train the first group of designer-graduates.

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P. Galaktionov in front of his graduation project—a development of a space transformable for theater, conference, restaurant or club

Their design approach to form is unusual and provokes resistance, which made it difficult to win acceptance for industrial design ideas by the woodworking department. But Dermetfak goes all out to define the character of its work by its budding engineer-artists. Where will the new specialists work and what exactly will be the responsibilities of the profession? Will the Dermetfak graduate personally make the final product himself (as Stroganov graduates did) or will he create models and supervise the making of the things in the factories, participating as one of a range of specialists involved in the manufacturing process? At this point, much remained unclear, for there had been little experience in actual factory conditions, the specialty was not listed as a job by factories, and there was as yet no organization of designers. In the face of much uncertainty students were reluctant to enroll in the studio. Even so, Dermetfak more than any other studio took up the practical challenge proscribed in the school’s decree.

Tatlin “material culture” found in materials themselves the determinants of form (his students’ sleigh and chair).

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The sketch of Tatlin Chair, 1927