Elected the architectural book of the year by the International Artbook
and Film Festival in Perpignan, France, Frédéric Chaubin's Cosmic
Communist Constructions Photographed explores 90 buildings in 14 former
Soviet Republics. Each of these structures expresses what Chaubin
considers the fourth age of Soviet architecture, an unknown burgeoning
that took place from 1970 until 1990.
Contrary to the 1920s and 1950s, no "school" or main trend emerges here.
These buildings represent a chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying
system. Taking advantage of the collapsing monolithic structure,
architects went far beyond modernism, going back to the roots or freely
innovating. Some of the daring ones completed projects that the
Constructivists would have dreamt of (Druzhba Sanatorium, Yalta), others
expressed their imagination in an expressionist way (Palace of Weddings,
Tbilisi). A summer camp, inspired by sketches of a prototype lunar base,
lays claim to Suprematist influence (Prometheus youth camp, Bogatyr).
Then comes the "speaking architecture" widespread in the last years of
the USSR: a crematorium adorned with concrete flames (Crematorium,
Kiev), a technological institute with a flying saucer crashed on the
roof (Institute of Scientific Research, Kiev), a political center
watching you like Big Brother (House of Soviets, Kaliningrad).
In their puzzle of styles, their outlandish strategies, these buildings
are extraordinary remnants of a collapsing system.In their diversity and
local exoticism, they testify both to the vast geography of the USSR and
its encroaching end of the Soviet Union, the holes in a widening net. At
the same time, they immortalize many of the ideological dreams of the
country and its time, from an obsession with the cosmos to the rebirth
of identity.
About the series
TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in
1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping
bookworms around the world curate their own library of art,
anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate
40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The
40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program--now
more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same
commitment to impeccable production.
