Love It Or Hate It?
If your favourite colour is concrete, you’ll love Kaliningrad’s landmark, the House Of Soviets. Most people don’t. According to travel writer, A. A. Gill, it’s ‘the most stratospherically ghastly building every conceived’. It is ‘communism’s Taj Mahal and emphatically hellish.’ Well, let’s say that it draws emphatic opinions.
These comments always remind me of a conversation I had with a lecturer at Delft University. ‘Architecture needs time’ was his catchphrase. How much time should one allow for The House Of Soviets? But apparently there’s no simple formula.
At the time we were discussing Dudok’s ‘Hilversum Town Hall‘ - widely acknowledged as one of the world’s finest buildings.
In 1927 everyone hated it. It was so far ahead of its time that it still looks modern today - especially sitting among Hilversum’s turn of the century, gabled villas. The council dithered for three years over construction. Finally, Dudok got up a petition of 55 leading architects to say it looked just great. Architecture obviously needs opinions too.
A monstrosity people seem to like is The Resurrection Church in Kaunas, Lithuania.
Of course this church has much sympathetic, symbolic value for Lithuania’s independence. For many years it was a radio factory under Soviet rule and to me it still looks like a radio factory. It was originally a red brick building, not white at all.
There are reasons why people shouldn’t ‘like’ this Resurrection Church any more than the House of Soviets. In France you are not allowed to build on top of hills in this way. It’s ’skyline pollution’.
Current opinion, however, looks like holding sway and the House Of Soviets will be demolished to make way for a kitsch repro of the original Konigsberg Castle. They tried painting Dom Sovietov white for the town’s anniversary. In East Germany, some of the old communist era blocks have been transformed with mirror tile cladding. But it doesn’t look like there will be any reprieve for the Dom.
You have to prepared for the time factor, though. In 50 years, people could well say, ‘My God, that was one of the finest examples of the Soviet Concrete Period and they knocked it down. How could they do that?’
Update
Thanks to Provod who wrote in to say that the House Of Soviets is currently painted pastel blue. How about that. Picture by Alex Dubrovski
Dear Copydude,
I must commend you on an ingenious and hilarious piece.
An added factor to the absurdity of the House of the Soviets, and plans to knock it down to build a replica of the old Königsberg castle, is that foreign visitors during the 750 years’ anniversary thought it was an architectural landmark in a positive way.
Apparently, authorities had it lit up during nighttime - regrettably not burnt down - and foreign guests obviously got impressed by its massiveness.
Another dubious architectural monument to add to your list might be Konstantinov’s Central Post Office in Skopje, Macedonia. Inspired by Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, it is still a monument over a kind of neo-brutalism, of which one has severe difficulties finding any real qualities. It is simply not as if it were a Niemeyer or something similar.
Yours,
Vilhelm
Hi Vilhelm.
It doesn’t help of course that the House has always been a building site and never finished. According to this article . . .
http://ncca-kaliningrad.ru/art-guide/?by=p&aglang=eng&au=031rust
. . . it ran out of finance, there were no architectural problems.
Thanks for the tip about the Skopje Post Office. It does indeed have a certain ya ne znayu shto. I found a picture of it easily on Google. It was tagged with the keywords ugly, communist, architect
It’s amazing what a coat of paint can do! The House currently is in various shades of pastel blue.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s the attitude.
http://kaliningrad.rfn.ru/p/m_13619.jpg
http://www.kaliningrad.ru/upload/foto/users/AlexDubrovskij/large/b26/b260073f19598fed272a9e7e916a9537.jpg
http://www.kaliningrad.ru/upload/foto/users/mannaz/large/839/839b34710a2c3db9db7ede886cba2aaf.jpg
dom sovetov reminds me of “the borg cube” from star track. still, i find it interesting and beleive it or not it is one of my “must see places before i die”
about skopje in macedonia. not only the central post office is like that. the whole city is built in this “neo-social-realism” style or whatever. i’m quite sure that the concrete was used in skopje because of earthquake in 1963. all the old buildings were destroyed in earthquake so about 80% of the city is build after 1963. that is probably why everything in skopje is made of concrete.
central post office in skopje:
http://tinyurl.com/2ketof
Dear Katjusha,
Of course, it is like that with many places in Skopje. The first other example that comes to mind is the central library. You are also correct in noticing the 1963 earthquake as the starting point of this madness.
The thing I simply cannot grasp is how this kind of neo-brutalist architecture got a lot of its inspiration and origin from the minimalists of those days. We see these monsters throughout the world, not least in Africa - with abominable examples in Nairobi and Kampala - and I just cannot get it.
Why is it that, at the height of the Cold War, this architectural style was spread throughout the world, regardless whether of western or eastern origin? That still amazes me.
Yours,
Vilhelm
“Why is it that, at the height of the Cold War, this architectural style was spread throughout the world, regardless whether of western or eastern origin?”
Simple guess - Cold War had nothing to do with architecture?
Dear Provod,
You might just have given someone out there an idea for a thesis. Whereas totalitarian esthetics is quite well-explored, the perspective of “East-West architectural cross-influence during the Cold War Era” seems a novel idea to me. Then, would the hypothesis be: “Cold War had nothing to do with architecture?”
Yours,
Vilhelm
As I understand it, the Post Office in Skopje has 3 different elements built in 1974, 1982 and 1989. The most brutal is the earliest section, the tower, and the least brutal section coincides with the end of the Cold War. Make of that what you will.
i admit, i have no idea why skopje went in this architecture way. my only guess is that the 1963 earthquake had a big role in this decision. if you look at most of the cities of former yugoslavia, you’ll see that they tried to preserve old parts but skopje is build in this “neo-brutalist” style throughout the whole city. and it is not over yet. look at the millennium cross situated on the pick of the mountain vodno. it is still not fully finished and it is one of the biggest crosses in the world and can be seen from 30 km distance.
and i think that cold war has nothing to do with the buildings, at least not in skopje. if that would be the case, then how come skopje is still being built in this manner?
Дом Советов looks much better in pastel blue color
previous, brownish and rusty facade reminds me of movie “stalker” 
Sometimes it needs dynamite. After the Great War (I) they built a Memorial in Rome (Italy). It looks like the Resurrection Church without tower and it looks like still ugly.