We are not against beauty, but against unnecessary elements! As a result, Khrushchev proposed a total industrialization, a full consolidation of industrial organizations and a creation of a maximally reduced catalogue of standard projects. He was supporting his theses with rational arguments, based mainly on cost optimization. In his speech, Khrushchev was addressing the processes that were already taking place in any case – the industrialization, the creation of an increasingly elaborate catalogue of prefabricated elements was the way architecture of those times had been developing. Yet the USSR, being a totalitarian, centralized state, created perfect conditions to pursue this development until it reached its ultimate stage. Therefore I call this speech Khrushchev’s Manifesto since it really is a Manifesto of architecture in its entirety.
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