Georgia Grunfeld, who recently celebrated her first anniversary  at The Modern House, chose Moisei Ginzburg and Ignaty Milinis’s Narkomfin building in Moscow as her favourite building.

Completed in 1932, it was designed for employees of the Commissariat of Finance (the Narodnyi komissariat finansov, shortened to ‘Narkomfin’).

It was designed to Constructivist principles and many of the facilities (such as kitchens and laundries) were communal.  However very few residents remain and much of the building has succumb to deterioration.

Georgia studied History of Art at university, which is where her interest in architecture began.  In her final year she wrote a dissertation on Russian Constructivism and became fascinated by the communal, utopian ideals that led the design of the building, as well as its influence on later architects.