Moisej J. Ginzburg, Ignatij F. Milinis

"The Narkomfin is more than a housing building. It is the converging point of the history of Constructivism. It is the most sophisticated expression of a "social condenser," in Moisej Ginzburg's words, where purposefully reassembled functional spaces are given an active role in transforming social behavior. Echoing the Russian Formalist method of analytic editing-- like the cinematic "montage of attractions," to use Eisenstein's expression-- it represents a reconfigured semantic series of the notion of dwelling. These new associations, in turn, contribute to the transformation of everyday life-- the byt. In this sense, the Narkomfin is more than a symbol; it is, in a nutshell, the program of Constructivism. It is also the highest point the construction House of Communes ever reached, the vast experimental field of numerous architects, and architectural workshops conducted in its most prolific time between 1926 and 1930"--Introduction.