In the Architects' Rooms

A residential building at the intersection of Rustaveli Street and Petrushevycha Street that has often been regarded as a sample of Polish Functionalism, the Suputnyk restaurant in Stryiskyi Park, the Dniester Hotel, the Lviv Hotel, a student’s canteen at the Academy of Arts, and building four of Lviv Polytechnics — all of these are the samples that are instantly recognizable in one way or another, and make a part of the architectural fabric of postwar Lviv. The names and efforts behind them include, among others, Anatoliy Konsulov and Muza Konsulova.

In 2018, the Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History joined efforts with the architects' granddaughter, Kateryna, and started digitalizing and processing the Konsulovs' private archive. Recently, the Media Archive team has completed the diligent task of organizing and cataloguing the archive. The collection brings together information on both practical and theoretical developments, and is unique in its scope and content. It contains numerous photographs, negatives, drawings, sketches, and texts from the family, but also sketches and floor plans of buildings designed based on the contributions of students of Anatoliy and Muza Konsulovs. However, the collection, the same as the personal and professional pathways of the family of architects, remains unexplored and requires further thorough research.

With the photographs on display, we explore the question of what constitutes an architect’s private archive. Like its creators or researchers, it does not exist in a vacuum. Architects' portfolios are made not only of buildings and drawings but also of broader political contexts, professional communities, or individual solutions. At the same time, private contacts with the family, friends, pupils, and students, or planning leisure time are  not the first things that come to mind when one thinks of researching architects’ archives.

The exhibition "In the Architects' Rooms" un-archives only a small part of the multilayered collection. It reveals private, work-related, and creative spaces of Anatoliy and Muza Konsulovs: in the photos of living rooms where they used to live or stay, of a workshop where they created and saw their friends and colleagues, and in interior sketches. Each of them prompts the reflection: What and how made, inspired, and determined the professional style of the architects? What could the archival photos of the family home at Tudor Street (presently — Levynskyi Str.) tell us about them? What can be revealed to us by a photo from a workshop located in a studio at Budivelna Street (presently — Rodyny Krushelnytskykh Str.)? How can architecture become an integral part of professional and private life at the same time? Who compiles and organizes architects' archives, and what insights do they provide for research? Finally, who decides what content to choose from a private archive to be made public?

The exhibition will take place as part of the Center for Urban History's public program [unarchiving].

The exhibition has been prepared by:

• Oksana Avramenko, Mykyta Bilyi, Yelyzaveta Bobrova, Sofia Dyak, Oleksandra Kliushnichenko, Sofia Nazaruk, Mariana Mazurak, Viktoriia Panas, Yaryna Paniv, Anastasiya Kholyavka / Center for Urban History
• Oleksandra Davydenko, Taras Karpiv / Café Vitalnia and the Tovarystvo_RPM
• Kateryna Malaia, author of the text on interior sketches
• Sofia Bylym, preparation of materials for publication
• Kleynod Baguette Shop

Credits

Cover Image: Anatolii Konsulov in his studio, 1960s–1980s, Lviv / collection of Kateryna Konsulova / Urban Media Archive of the Center for Urban History