Digital Reconfiguration of the Project of Brasini for the Soviet Palace in Moscow

The digital language makes it possible to reproduce non-materially constructed places, making them realistically perceptible and usable in the virtual dimension. The possibility of reconfiguring non-existing works in three dimen- sions is a graphic opportunity to investigate the contents expressed by the cultural heritage contained in projects not completed. The contribution in this sense focuses on the study of the graphic heritage related to unrealized projects, referring to the analysis of documents left on paper that constitute an important cultural background to understand the historical and architectural events that underlie the failed achievements. In particular, the survey methodology is applied to an emblematic interna- tional comparison, that relating to the competition for the construction of the Soviet Palace in Moscow which constitutes a salient episode for the history of twentieth-century architecture and can refer to new aspects through drawing. It is one of the first competitions that the Soviet Union opened to the West with the participation of many well-known architects and among them Le Corbusier, Erich Mendelson, Walter Gropius, Hans Poelzig with avant-garde proposals to which the monumental classicism of the utopian project of the Russian Boris Iofan, expression of political power. The research conducted from the point of view of representation traces, through graphical elaborations, the requests formulated by the notice for the great building, that was never completed, of which some of the significant project proposals have been examined. In particular, the survey focuses on the designs drawn up by Armando Brosino, the only Italian participant and teacher of Boris Iofan, who strongly influenced the style of the winning project. The main objective of the contribution is to communicate the values of the graphic heritage expressed in the design solutions, analyzed, reconfigured and explored three-dimensional in the digital dimension.