The pace of today's life is quick, dynamic, its rhythm is clear, precise, linear, mathematical; material and the purpose determine the structure of any building created by a contemporary architect. Every building created by a modern artist has to start a life as an active force which will organize human consciousness, which will affect man both psychologically and physiologically, which will provoke action, pure energy.

These are the extracts from the 1922 manifesto Credo, written by one of the most significant representatives of Russian Constructivism, Alexander Vesnin. Along with Ginzburg and Golosov, he is a cofounder of the OSA Group (Organization of Contemporary Architects) in 1921. Together with his brothers Leonid and Victor, he developed momentous projects and competition entries, some of which were partly executed – such as the Palace of Labor, the Leningrad Pravda Building, Likhacev Palace of Culture in Moscow in 1930 – the projects whose influence was far-reaching and long-lasting.