In mathematics, more specifically in topology, the Volodin space of a ring R is a subspace of the classifying space given by

where is the subgroup of upper triangular matrices with 1's on the diagonal (i.e., the unipotent radical of the standard Borel) and a permutation matrix thought of as an element in and acting (superscript) by conjugation.^[1] The space is acyclic and the fundamental group is the Steinberg group of R. In fact, Suslin (1981) showed that X yields a model for Quillen's plus-construction in algebraic K-theory.

An analogue of Volodin's space where GL(R) is replaced by the Lie algebra was used by Goodwillie (1986) to prove that, after tensoring with Q, relative K-theory K(A, I), for a nilpotent ideal I, is isomorphic to relative cyclic homology HC(A, I). This theorem was a pioneering result in the area of trace methods.

• Goodwillie, Thomas G. (1986), "Relative algebraic K-theory and cyclic homology", Annals of Mathematics, Second Series, 124 (2): 347–402, doi:10.2307/1971283, JSTOR 1971283, MR 0855300
• Weibel, Charles (2013). "The K-book: an introduction to algebraic K-theory".
• Suslin, A. A. (1981), "On the equivalence of K-theories", Comm. Algebra, 9 (15): 1559–66, doi:10.1080/00927878108822666
• Volodin, I. (1971), "Algebraic K-theory as extraordinary homology theory on the category of associative rings with unity", Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 35 (4): 844–873, Bibcode:1971IzMat...5..859V, doi:10.1070/IM1971v005n04ABEH001121, MR 0296140, (Translation: Math. USSR Izvestija Vol. 5 (1971) No. 4, 859–887)