Travel back to the 1930s with Moscow’s Soviet avant-garde Airbnb

A renovated avant-garde apartment promising to transport tourists back to a “1930s utopia” has opened its doors to guests in Moscow.

Nestled in a 1932 building designed by Constructivist architect Ivan Nikolaev, the apartment has been painstakingly recreated by heritage activists Alexander Dudnev and Konstantin Gudkov to take visitors back to pre-war Moscow.

Built close to a cluster of Moscow’s major train stations — Kazansky, Leningradsky, and Yaroslavsky — the building was originally created to house railway workers.

A view of the nearby Red Gate Building, one of the city’s seven Stalinist skyscrapers, can also be seen from the window, although construction on the imposing high-rise wasn’t finished until 1953.

Original 1930s details in the apartment include window frames, doors, parquet, and some of the colour scheme, all of which were carefully restored.

The furniture was recreated by art studio Less Design from original 1920s and 1930s plans, most of which had only ever been seen as concept works. They include Nikolai Suetin’s Suprematist chair and fabrics by Lyubov Popova, as well as practical “transformable furniture”, popular in the early Soviet Union for meeting diverse needs in small spaces.

Some sacrifices have had to be made in the search for authenticity, however.

“Historical interiors demand respect and place limits on certain modern items and comforts,” says Dudnev. “We don’t have a television, for example.”

To experience the apartment for yourself, visit the property’s Airbnb page here.