- Futuristic architecture is a form of architecture that appeared in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century. It was characterized by anti-historicism, strong chromatism, long dynamic lines suggesting speed, movement, urgency and lyricism.
Futurist architecture is part of Futurism, an artistic movement founded by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, who wrote the first manifesto of Futurism in 1909. The movement also attracted a number of architects. Futurist themes included the cult of the machine age and the glorification of war and violence.
A late group of futurist architects included Antonio Sant "Elia, who translated the futurist vision into urban forms. Between 1912 and 1914, he began a series of famous design drawings" New City "(Italian Città Nuova), in which he created a unique outstanding image of ideas about The famous "Manifesto of Futurist Architecture" (Italian: Manifesto dell'architettura futurista) was published by the architect in August 1914.
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Northern modern - the direction of international modernity, which has been developed in the architecture of the northern countries - in Sweden, Finland, Norway. In Russia, the direction is associated mainly with the architecture of St. Petersburg, where it developed at the beginning of the 20th century under the influence of Swedish and especially Finnish architecture of national romanticism. In a broader sense - an appeal to national origins, a rethinking of the national medieval architecture within the Art Nouveau style, primarily in such large ...
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Leningrad landscape school, - a group of painters who worked in the 1930s - 1940s (some researchers expand the time frame of its existence - the 1920s - 1950s). The definition of "Leningrad landscape school of the 1930s - 1940s" - was proposed by the art critic A. I. Strukova in her dissertation and the book "Leningrad landscape school of the 1930-1940s." Earlier in 1971, L. V. Mochalov, in an article about V. Pakulin, named the names of artists united, in his words, “Leningrad landscape ...
Historicism (German: Historismus) is a trend in architecture and decorative art of the 19th century, striving for an accurate reproduction of the spirit and form historical styles. It acts as a combination of various architectural, already “past”, “historical” styles, styles that acquire a new modernity and life in a kind of “historically incorrect” unity, since fragments of different times are represented in this unity (these times are represented as styles).
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During the winter, people experience hypersomnia, depressed mood, and a general sense of hopelessness. Even the risk of premature death in winter is much higher. Our biological clock is out of sync with our wake and work clocks. Shouldn't we adjust our office hours to help improve our mood?
As a rule, people tend to see the world in gloomy colors, when the daylight hours become shorter and the cold sets in. But changing work hours to suit the seasons can help lift our spirits.
For many of us, winter, with its cold days and long nights, creates a general feeling of malaise. It becomes increasingly difficult to get out of bed in the semi-darkness, and hunched over our desks at work, we feel our productivity dwindle along with the remnants of the midday sun.
For the small subset of the population who experience severe seasonal affective disorder (SAD), it's even worse - winter melancholy mutates into something far more debilitating. Patients experience hypersomnia, depressed mood, and a general feeling of hopelessness during the darkest months. Regardless of SAD, depression is more commonly reported in winter, suicide rates increase, and work productivity drops in January and February.
While it's easy to explain all this with some vague idea of winter gloom, there may be a scientific basis for this depression. If our biological clock is out of sync with our wake and work hours, shouldn't we adjust our office hours to help improve our mood?
“If our biological clock says it wants us to wake up at 9:00 because it’s dark outside winter morning but we get up at 7:00 – we miss a whole phase of sleep,” says Greg Murray, professor of psychology at Swinburne University, Australia. Research in the field of chronobiology - the science of how our body regulates sleep and wakefulness - supports the idea that in winter, sleep needs and preferences change, and restrictions modern life may be especially inappropriate during these months.
What do we mean when we talk about biological time? Circadian rhythms are a concept that scientists use to measure our internal sense of time. It's a 24-hour timer that determines how we want to place the various events of the day - and most importantly, when we want to get up and when we want to sleep. “The body likes to do this in sync with the biological clock, which is the master regulator of how our body and behavior relate to the sun,” Murray explains.
There are a huge number of hormones and other chemicals involved in regulating our biological clock, as well as many external factors. Especially important is the sun and its location in the sky. Photoreceptors located in the retina, known as ipRGC, are particularly sensitive to blue light and are therefore ideal for adjusting the circadian rhythm. There is evidence that these cells play an important role in regulating sleep.
The evolutionary value of this biological mechanism has been to contribute to changes in our physiology, biochemistry and behavior depending on the time of day. “This is precisely the predictive function of the circadian clock,” says Anna Wirtz-Justice, professor of chronobiology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. "And all living beings have it." Given the change in daylight throughout the year, it also prepares organisms for seasonal behavioral changes such as breeding or hibernation.
While there hasn't been enough research on whether we would respond well to more sleep and different wake times in the winter, there is evidence that this may be the case. “From a theoretical standpoint, reducing daylight in the winter morning should contribute to what we call phase lag,” says Murray. “And from a biological standpoint, there is good reason to believe that this probably does happen to some extent. Delayed sleep phase means our circadian clock wakes us up later in the winter, which explains why it's getting harder to fight the urge to reset the alarm."
At first glance, it may seem that the phase delay of sleep suggests that we will want to go to bed later in winter, but Murray suggests that this tendency is likely to be neutralized by the general growing desire to sleep. Research shows that people need (or at least want) more sleep in the winter. A study in three pre-industrial societies - where there are no alarm clocks, smartphones, and a 09:00 to 17:00 workday - in South America and Africa found that these communities collectively napped an hour longer during the winter. Given that these communities are located in equatorial regions, this effect may be even more pronounced in the northern hemisphere, where winters are colder and darker.
This sleepy winter regime is mediated at least in part by one of the major players in our chronobiology, melatonin. This endogenous hormone is controlled by the circadian cycles and also influences them in turn. It's a sleeping pill, which means it's going to keep ramping up until we fall into bed. “In humans, the melatonin profile is much broader in winter than in summer,” says chronobiologist Til Rönneberg. "These are biochemical reasons why circadian cycles can respond to two different seasons."
But what does it mean if our internal clocks don't match the times our schools and work schedules require? “The discrepancy between what your biological clock wants and what your social clock wants is what we call social jet lag,” Rönneberg says. "Social jet lag is stronger in winter than in summer." Social jet lag is similar to the one we are already familiar with, but instead of flying around the world, we are unsettled by the time of our social demands - getting up to work or school.
Social jet lag is a well-documented phenomenon and can have serious implications for health, well-being and how well we can function in Everyday life. If it is true that winter produces a form of social jet lag, in order to understand what its consequences may be, we can turn our attention to the people who are most affected by this phenomenon.
The first group of people for potential analysis includes people living on the western edges of time zones. Since time zones can cover vast areas, people living on the eastern fringes of the time zones experience sunrise about an hour and a half earlier than those living on the western fringes. Despite this, the entire population must adhere to the same working hours, which means that many will be forced to get up before sunrise. Essentially, this means that one part of the time zone is constantly out of sync with circadian rhythms. And although this may not seem like such a big deal, it is connected with a number of devastating consequences. People living in the western fringes are more prone to breast cancer, obesity, diabetes and heart disease - as the researchers determined, the cause of these diseases was primarily a chronic disruption of circadian rhythms, which arises from the need to wake up in the dark.
Another striking example of social jetlag is in Spain, which lives on Central European Time, despite being geographically aligned with the UK. This means that the country's time is set one hour ahead, and that the population must follow a social timetable that does not match their biological clock. As a result, the entire country suffers from a lack of sleep - getting on average an hour less than the rest of Europe. This degree of sleep loss has been associated with an increase in absenteeism, work-related injuries, and an increase in stress and school failure in the country.
Another group that may show symptoms similar to those of people suffering during the winter is the group that has a natural tendency to stay awake at night throughout the year. The average teenager's circadian rhythm is naturally shifted four hours ahead of that of adults, which means that adolescent biology causes them to go to bed and wake up later. Despite this, for many years they struggled to get up at 7 am and get to school on time.
And while these are exaggerated examples, could the winter-wearing consequences of an inappropriate work schedule contribute to a similar but less significant impact? This idea is partly supported by the theory of what causes SAD. Although there are still a number of hypotheses about the exact biochemical basis of this condition, a significant number of researchers believe that it may be caused by a particularly severe response to the body clock being out of sync with natural daylight and the sleep-wake cycle - known as delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Scientists now tend to think of SAD as a spectrum of characteristics rather than a condition that you either have or you don't, and in Sweden and other northern hemisphere countries, up to 20 percent of the population is estimated to suffer from milder winter melancholy. Theoretically, mild SAD can be experienced by the entire population to some extent, and only for some it will be debilitating. “Some people don't get too emotional about being out of sync,” Murray notes.
At present, the idea of reducing working hours or postponing the start of the working day to a later time in winter has not been tested. Even countries located in the darkest parts of the northern hemisphere - Sweden, Finland and Iceland - work all winter in almost night conditions. But there is a chance that if the working hours correspond more closely to our chronobiology, we will work and feel better.
After all, US schools that moved the start of the day later to match the circadian rhythms of teenagers have successfully shown an increase in the amount of sleep students get and a corresponding increase in energy. A school in England that shifted the start of the school day from 8:50 to 10:00 found that there was a sharp drop in sick leave and improved student performance.
There is evidence that winter is associated with more lateness to work and school, with an increase in absenteeism. Interestingly, a study published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms found that absenteeism was more closely related to photoperiods - the number of hours of daylight - than other factors like the weather. Simply allowing people to come in later can help counter this influence.
A better understanding of how our circadian cycles affect our seasonal cycles is something we could all benefit from. "Bosses should say, 'I don't care when you come to work, come when your biological clock decides you've had enough sleep, because in this situation we both win,'" Rönneberg says. “Your results will be better. You will be more productive at work because you will feel how efficient you are. And the number of sick days will decrease.” Since January and February are already our least productive months of the year, do we really have anything to lose?
ARCHITECTURE Architecton: Izvestiya vuzov» No. 38 - Supplement July 2012
FUTURISTIC CONCEPTS OF THE PAST IN THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE PRESENT
The article deals with the phenomenon of the phenomenon of "futurism" in architecture on the example of the transfer of futuristic concepts of the past into the architecture of the present by rethinking the original idea or through direct quotation. On the basis of the considered examples, a hypothesis was developed about the cyclical nature of the idea of architectural futurism, which formed the basis of further research.
Keywords Keywords: futurism, architectural futurism, avant-garde, forecasting, cyclic model, sociocultural context
In the rapidly developing modern world, the future is getting closer with each new discovery or invention. The change in the spatio-temporal context has significantly influenced the attitude of architecture towards the future. Thus, the prognostic function of the architect, which was originally built into the profession, has been significantly enhanced by the current socio-cultural context. The architect began to actively fantasize about the future, to look much further than his profession formally suggested. This was the reason for the formation of such a phenomenon as architectural futurism and its formation as an independent phenomenon.
Revealing the origins modern architecture in the ideas of futurist architects of the past allows us to make an assumption about the trends in the development of architecture in the future. This prognostic aspect of the study emphasizes the relevance of studying architectural futurism, and is also a clear illustration of the interaction of space and time.
The history of the term "futurism" is rooted in the name of the European avant-garde movement in literature and fine arts of the early 20th century, characterized by sharp radicalism and anti-historicism (Fig. 1).
Rice. 1. Italian futurism. W. Boccioni "The street enters the house"; A. Sant'Elia, "Project of an airport and railway station with cable cars and elevators on three street levels"
In the modern sense, futurism is an open approach to art, architecture, science; cult of the future, an attempt to break away from the past and the present. The common features that can be identified for the futuristic direction are speed, rapid and reckless movement forward and a pronounced tendency to seek the maximum expression of the new and newfangled. But these are rather philosophical than artistic categories. Assigning itself the role of a prototype of the art of the future, futurism as the main program put forward the idea of destroying cultural stereotypes and assumed instead the idea of technology and urbanism as the main signs of the present and the future.
The basic principles of Futurism went beyond the purely visual arts and literature and had a huge impact on other creative areas, including architecture. These creative concepts marked the beginning of an independent life of architectural futurism.
Architectural futurism experienced the moment of its greatest activity, of course, on the border of two centuries of the 19th and 20th centuries. The idea of technological progress was enthusiastically received by the architectural avant-garde. The political changes of that time gave architects a unique chance to express their most fantastic ideas. In the 1920s, the architectural avant-garde, awakened by a wave of revolution unfolding under the slogans of social utopias, managed to give a bright impetus to the rationalist and functionalist trends in architecture [1]. And this impulse cannot be underestimated on the scale of the formation of the entire world architecture. But still, it began to emerge much earlier, with its origins going back to the 18th century, to the work of the so-called revolutionary architects [2]. We are talking about the French architects Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Etienne-Louis Bullet and others, whose work on the eve of the French Revolution largely influenced the movement of futurist architects that developed later at the beginning of the 20th century (Fig. 2).
Rice. 2. Architectural fantasies. E.-L. Bulle, Newton's Cenotaph in Paris; K.-N. Ledoux, The Caretaker's House Project
The beginning of the last century was not only the most romantic time for futurism, but also the most fruitful, and the most defining for it as an architectural trend. This era is truly a treasure trove of futuristic ideas. All the masters of the avant-garde were futurists, regardless of whether they were engaged in real or conceptual design. Each of the buildings and structures they created was absolutely futuristic, a product of a radical new era.
But the most interesting thing is that whether it is a revolutionary avant-garde or a socialist utopia, to one degree or another, all these projects have found a real embodiment. That part of the projects that, for one reason or another, was not implemented immediately, found a second birth later - in new projects by rethinking the original concept in specific conditions or by directly quoting the avant-garde idea. And recently, in the context of the formation of new stylistic trends, the role of the "unrealized heritage" of the avant-garde began to increase even more.
Each significant avant-garde architect has a lot of futuristic projects that are iconic for us: these are the architects K.S. Malevich, and urban planning projects of L.M. Lissitzky and G.T. Krutikov, and competitive projects by I.I. Leonidov, and architectural fantasies of Ya.G. Chernikhov, and many others. Each project from this list had a huge impact on the formation of world architecture (Fig. 3).
Rice. 3. Russian avant-garde. L. Lissitzky, "Prouns"; I. Leonidov, "House of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry"; Y. Chernikhov, "Architectural fantasies"
Modern architecture does not welcome the radical anti-historicism of the avant-garde movements. On the contrary, even taking into account the diversity of directions, architecture in all its manifestations refers to history. But this does not mean propaganda of historicism. Turning to the origins, rather, gives a new impetus to the development of modern architectural ideas. Unrealized projects have huge potential. The futuristic concepts of the past are the main fund of this potential. And modern architects do not forget about it. They candidly talk about the sources of their inspiration and do not hesitate to talk about the influence of architectural futurism on their work. But this process is not always conscious. In the process of studying the history of architecture, various concepts of the past settle in the minds of architects, and then, acquiring new details and details, are reborn into completely new ideas.
One way or another, through direct quotation or reinterpretation of the futuristic concepts of the past, they live in contemporary architecture. The deadline for implementation is always different. If skyscrapers spiers into the sky were implemented in the States almost immediately, just a few decades after they were drawn by futurist architects, then projects for megabuildings and megastructures have been waiting for their chance for more than half a century.
After its birth, a futuristic idea practically begins to take on a life of its own. Its fate is unpredictable: through oblivion, a creative concept is reborn in new projects or is realized almost unchanged in the future.
The fate of the concept of horizontal skyscrapers L.M. Lissitzky in this sense is very revealing (Fig. 4). It illustrates the whole path of the futuristic idea: the birth of a theoretical justification of the concept from pure geometry (Lissitzky's prouns), the actual design of the skyscrapers themselves on the Boulevard Ring, the partial implementation of the project in the 1930s, and, finally, the modern incarnations of this idea.
Rice. 4. The process of implementing a futuristic concept on the example of L. Lissitzky's horizontal skyscrapers
The full concept of horizontal skyscrapers, as designed by L.M. Lissitzky, failed to implement. The short period of constructivism did not allow such large-scale ideas to be realized. However, the town-planning concept with landmark buildings was adopted by other architects and implemented several decades later, albeit in a somewhat modified quality. Stalin's skyscrapers, in fact, represent the same network of urban dominants as horizontal skyscrapers.
Despite the fact that almost a century has passed since the birth of this futuristic concept, it continues to inspire modern architects. The idea of horizontal skyscrapers is now more relevant than ever. The maximum use of usable area with a minimum building area is the goal of any developer. L.M. Lissitzky in his project already then managed to combine this economic indicator and a new functional model - a public function in two-three-story buildings with a central corridor and vertical communications in supports. Many modern public buildings are designed according to this principle. Granhouses in the business district of Cologne are almost a literal realization of horizontal skyscrapers in terms of space and planning. A bright architectural and spatial solution, invented a century ago by L.M. Lissitzky, and now makes cranhouses the hallmark of not only the business district, but the whole of Cologne.
Examples such as the concept of L.M. Lissitzky, many more can be cited. The same fate was shared by the projects of I.I. Leonidov. The Parisian district of Defense can be called the quintessence of the creativity of the avant-garde masters (Fig. 5).
Rice. 5. Parisian district of Defense
The study of modern futuristic ideas, in turn, will help to predict the further development of architecture in general. Their formation began with the death of modernism. As already noted, the change in the global paradigm has turned people's ideas about the future of architecture, semantic accents have been placed in a completely different way. If earlier the cult of futurist architects was technology and total urbanism, now attention has begun to focus on the man himself and his place in wildlife and the mechanized world.
But, despite the shift in priorities, all modern futuristic ideas go back to their predecessors - to the futuristic ideas of the past. Those concepts that did not have time to get real implementation in the past were reborn into new futuristic ideas by rethinking them in modern economic and socio-cultural contexts, taking into account new living conditions.
Over the past few decades, the problem of harmonious coexistence of megacities and the environment has become more acute. Specialists from various industries develop and use the latest technologies, which in many ways allow minimizing the negative impact on the environment. By the second half of the twentieth century, their efforts, together with the efforts of architects, formed a new direction, called arcology. Its followers strive to achieve a balance between the technicality of the structure and its environmental friendliness (Fig. 6).
Rice. 6. Futuristic concepts
Paolo Soleri, an American architect of Italian origin, is considered to be the ideological father of arcology. The principles of the symbiosis of urban buildings and the environment were tried to be deduced even before him, but for the first time he systematized the available data, formulating the main postulates in the book Arcology: City in the Image and Likeness of Man. Soleri offers not only new architectural and urban solutions, but also a completely new way of life. Only in this way, in his opinion, will it be possible to achieve a balance of man-made and natural environments. Paolo Soleri believes that urbanization in a horizontal direction is the reason for the detrimental effect of the current architecture on the environment. Arcology proposes to create structures with a completely self-sufficient infrastructure - hyperstructures (or megabuildings). The vertical orientation of such hyperstructures will solve the problem of overpopulation and the inevitable urbanization of the future. Soleri's ideas have found many followers and are already embodied in the architectural solutions of modern practicing architects [3].
Futuristic concepts of the past invariably influence the architecture of the future. Just as the work of futurist architects of the past influenced the formation of modern architecture, so today's futuristic ideas will be embodied in the future in real design or reborn into new futuristic concepts. One way or another, the connection and continuity of architectural ideas allows us to draw conclusions about the cyclic structure of the phenomenon of "architectural futurism". This hypothesis may form the basis of further research into architectural futurism.
As a result of this study, a model of architectural futurism will be built, in which it will be presented as a cyclic phenomenon. This will be the main illustration of the predictive function of architectural futurism (Fig. 7).
Rice. 7. Vertical cut of the model of the phenomenon "architectural futurism"
The development of this model will be based on methods from various interdisciplinary studies, which are a set of characteristics and methods for studying the evolution of an idea, cyclic phenomena, and complex self-organizing systems. Thus, this model by universal means will represent the entire life cycle of the idea of architectural futurism and how it changes under the influence of various external factors.
Bibliography
Ikonnikov A.V. Architecture of the 20th century: utopia and reality. In 2 volumes. T 1. / A.V. Ikonnikov. - M.: Progress-Tradition, 2001. - P.656.
Shultz B. The past future / B. Schultz // Speech: for the future, 05.2010.
Shulga S. Megazdaniya - the future is already today [Electronic resource] / Architecture and architects // Architects. - Access mode: http://www.archandarch.ru/2011/05/27/ mega-buildings-future-already-today
Futuristic architecture is a style of architecture that originated in Italy at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its characteristic features are anti-historicism, strong chromatism, movement, lyricism, long dynamic lines.
This trend in architecture is part of Futurism, an artistic movement created by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
It is worth noting that futurism is not so much an architectural style as an approach to architecture, a way of behavior and thinking. Today, this direction in architecture for most people is associated with strange architectural forms. Famous buildings such as the Space Needle (Seattle), Dekin (Florida) and the Transamerica Pyramid (San Francisco) were built in a futuristic style. Also a prime example futuristic architecture is the Tumorrowland project (Disneyland, Anaheim).
A late group of futurist architects included the Italian Antonio Sant'Elia, who managed to transfer futuristic ideas into the framework of urban construction. From 1912, this architect began to create a series of his famous design drawings "New City" ("Citta Nuova"), in which he showed how, in his opinion, urban planning should look like in the new "technical" century. The most famous sketches of Antonio Sant'Elia were a sketch of a station for trains and airplanes (1914), and a drawing of an automobile factory in Lingotto (1928).
French photographer Frederic Chaubin has released a collection of his works "USSR: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed". It includes the most unusual buildings built in the Union republics from 1970 to 1990...
One day in 2003, Frédéric Chaubin was wandering around a Tbilisi market when he came across an old book. Naturally, the French photographer could not read the text, but the illustrations literally fascinated him.
This work on the 70-year history of post-revolutionary architecture presented an amazing selection of photographs of buildings, demonstrating an extraordinary variety of styles: in addition to Soviet Suprematism and Constructivism, it contained examples of Western influence, associations with the creations of all the great masters - from Alvar Alto and Antonio Gaudi to Oscar Niemeyer.
1. Cinema "Russia" in Yerevan
In addition, the most interesting element of the Soviet desire for superiority, architectural allusions to satellites, space rockets and flying saucers, became the leitmotif of all this diversity.
2. Research Institute in Kyiv
Chauben fell in love with this architecture at first sight. Thus began his seven-year "odyssey with a camera" - the search for the most unusual creations of Soviet architects (many of them today are in danger of death).
All of them, according to Shoben, make an amazing impression: "I seemed to have found an ancient lost city, my own Machu Picchu."
Take the incredible building of the Ministry of Highways of Georgia, built in the mid-seventies - a bold project in the form of a bizarre "stack" of rectangular blocks with symmetrical rows of windows.
3.The building of the Ministry of Highways of Georgia
Designed on the basis of the so-called “city-space” concept, and, moreover, with surprising attention to ecology for that time (and for the transport department), this structure seems to be hanging in the air, and trees and bushes grow freely between its supports.
And here is the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic Institute in Minsk: in the picture taken by Chauben (it, along with other photographs, was included in the book “Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed”, which became the result of his odyssey), it resembles a giant passenger ferry, majestically floating along the ice-bound Belarusian river.
4. Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic Institute in Minsk
Another architectural gem is the Druzhba sanatorium in Yalta: it resembles a pyramid of cogwheels (each of them is a residential floor), as if growing out of a grove on the seashore.
“Turkish intelligence and the Pentagon mistook it for a missile base,” says Shoben. The photographer is the first to admit that his book is the work of an observant and caring dilettante, and not a specialist in architecture. However, no expert, probably, would have made so much effort to take the necessary pictures.
5.Sanatorium "Friendship" in Yalta
Partly because of the language barrier, and partly because the names of the creators of these miracles were not widely publicized, the original Soviet architecture went largely unnoticed in the West. And now it amazes, almost shocks.
Information about these outstanding projects appeared, but as a rule, either in the journal "Architecture of the USSR", or in specialized publications like the jubilee (dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution) book published in 1987 on the architecture of all 15 Soviet republics, which attracted Shoben's attention to Tbilisi market.
In addition, travel by foreigners throughout the Soviet Union, especially outside of the usual tourist routes, was discouraged to say the least, and many of these masterpieces remained virtually unknown outside the regions where they were built.
However, Chaubin was especially struck by the fact that the most stunning buildings he found were erected at the final stage of the communist era.
“Almost all of them were built in the last 15 years of the existence of the USSR. At first it seemed strange to me that they were made in such a variety of forms - especially when you remember that the construction in the USSR was mainly carried out according to the standard designs introduced by Khrushchev in the mid-fifties, from cheap concrete, in a minimalist style that did not allow the architect's imagination to run wild.
According to him, the explanation lies in the fact that in the seventies and eighties, talented local architects had more opportunities to prove themselves - they were no longer so bound hand and foot by the restrictions imposed by Moscow.
Thus, this architectural take-off can be called the “swan song” of a superpower, created by people freed from the shackles of centralization, who observed modern trends in the West and borrowed them. "These buildings anticipated the collapse of the USSR," Shoben believes, "long before the system collapsed in 1991."
Many masterpieces are now abandoned or in need of repair. In general, they have one problem: we are talking about public buildings that were built on a grand scale to impress and inspire the local population, which now, when the state has ceased to be omnipotent and all-good, were simply not in demand.
However, among all these research institutes, sports centers, sanatoriums, swimming pools and pioneer camps, there are buildings with completely exotic functions, for example, “wedding palaces”.
These amazing complexes, erected in the centers of cities, resembled cathedrals - both in their size and in their purpose.
Shoben even came up with a whole game with his picture of the Wedding Palace in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. He showed the photo to different people and asked them to guess what it was - a monastery, a power plant, or maybe a giant laboratory?
"No one could have guessed that this was just a marriage registration office designed on a majestic scale to encourage people to refuse to get married in a church."
However, Chauben also has a serious goal: he wants to understand how these buildings appeared, and to find the authors of the projects - but it turned out to be very difficult, if not impossible, to find out the names of the architects. They were civil servants, after all, and worked in gigantic architectural workshops.
If these people created the same buildings in the West, they would probably become rich and famous, they would live in penthouses. In the USSR, they got only small apartments in standard panel high-rise buildings.
The youngest of the architects who worked on these projects at the end of the Soviet era are now in their 60s; some of them have achieved great success.
So, Oleg Romanov, who in 1985 became one of the authors of the project for a camp for difficult teenagers in the village of Bogatyri (Russia) - it was made in a "zigzag" style, which received the name "deconstructivism" in the West - is now vice president of the Union of Architects of St. Petersburg .
He is actively campaigning against the construction of the gigantic and gaudy "Gazprom Tower" designed by British architecture firm RMJM, which threatens to ruin the skyline of one of the planet's most beautiful cities.
In 1994, he emigrated to the United States and began working in New York with Philip Johnson, the epitome of decadent "bourgeois" architecture.
And Giorgi Chakhava, as it turns out, was not only the lead architect of the magnificent project of the Georgian Ministry of Highways, but also the republican minister of road construction. Therefore, he could give free rein to his imagination, inspired by the ideas of one of the leaders of the Suprematists - El Lissitzky.
The result was almost a whole city - a complex of roads and buildings-blocks intersecting in the sky: the ministry seems to soar above the forest, creating a harmony of nature and avant-garde architecture.
11.Ministry of Road Construction of Georgia
Are these masterpieces preserved only on the pages of Chauben's book? Due to the predation of developers, many of them may die: after all, these buildings stand on expensive land, where you can build a lot of banal hotels, casinos, entertainment centers and villas for the rich.
However, there is good news: the ministry building built by Chakhava was declared a national architectural monument in 2007, the year of the architect's death. Later there were plans to place the Bank of Georgia in it.
However, not all Tbilisi residents like this building: many consider it a visible symbol of the gloomy past. The same attitude exists towards many other buildings photographed by Chaubin - although he himself considers them evidence of the decline of the USSR, and not its remnants.
"I don't have nostalgia for the Soviet Union," he explains, "but these strange and beautiful buildings are a shell of a culture that has fascinated me."
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14. House of Soviets in Kaliningrad
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21.Concert hall in Dnepropetrovsk
22. Theater named after G. Kamala in Kazan
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26. Cinema "Panoramic" in Tashkent
Text by Jonathan Glancy, Guardian magazine, translated by Voice of Russia
