A photographic record of 90 weird and wonderful buildings from the last decades of the USSR Photographer Frédéric Chaubin reveals 90 buildings sited in fourteen former Soviet Republics which express what he considers to be the fourth age of Soviet architecture.
Taking advantage of the collapsing monolithic structure, the holes in the widening net, architects went far beyond modernism, going back to the roots or freely innovating. This puzzle of styles testifies to all the ideological dreams of the period, from the obsession with the cosmos to the rebirth of identity. It also outlines the geography of the USSR, showing how local influences made their exotic twists before the country was brought to its end.
In the last few years, the interest towards brutalism increased a lot, and the overall attitude about this architectural style became less prejudicial.
This interest has been nourished and supported by several information and cultural initiatives focused on brutalism, as different exhibitions or the publication of a number of books and in-depths articles on magazines as well as on daily newspapers. The pictures in this gallery are part of a much wider and long term photo project on Brutalist architecture all over the world, aiming to rediscover these structures and their influence even in most recent projects and to represent them highlighting their peculiar and silent solemnity.
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