{"product_id":"frederic-chaubin-by-frederic-chaubin-9783836587792","title":"Frédéric Chaubin","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eElected the architectural book of the year by the International Artbook and Film Festival in Perpignan, France, \u003cem\u003eFrédéric Chaubin's\u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003eCosmic Communist Constructions Photographed\u003c\/em\u003e explores \u003cb\u003e90 buildings in 14 former Soviet Republics\u003c\/b\u003e. Each of these structures expresses what Chaubin considers the \u003cb\u003efourth age of Soviet architecture\u003c\/b\u003e, an unknown burgeoning that took place \u003cb\u003efrom 1970 until 1990\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eContrary to the 1920s and 1950s, no \"school\" or main trend emerges here. These buildings represent a \u003cb\u003echaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system\u003c\/b\u003e. Taking advantage of the collapsing monolithic structure, \u003cb\u003earchitects went far beyond modernism\u003c\/b\u003e, going back to the roots or freely innovating. Some of the daring ones completed projects that the \u003cb\u003eConstructivists\u003c\/b\u003e would have dreamt of (Druzhba Sanatorium, Yalta), while others expressed their imagination in an \u003cb\u003eexpressionist\u003c\/b\u003e way (Palace of Weddings, Tbilisi).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA summer camp, inspired by sketches of a prototype lunar base, lays claim to Suprematist influence (Prometheus youth camp, Bogatyr). Then comes the \u003cb\u003e\"speaking architecture\"\u003c\/b\u003e 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), and a political center watching you like Big Brother (House of Soviets, Kaliningrad).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn their puzzle of styles and outlandish strategies, these buildings are \u003cb\u003eextraordinary remnants of a collapsing system\u003c\/b\u003e. In their diversity and local exoticism, they testify both to the \u003cb\u003evast geography of the USSR\u003c\/b\u003e and its encroaching end, representing holes in a widening net. At the same time, they immortalise many of the \u003cb\u003eideological dreams of the country and its time\u003c\/b\u003e, from an obsession with the cosmos to the rebirth of identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Thames and Hudson (Australia) Pty Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47596437143788,"sku":"9783836587792","price":70.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9783836587792-fr-d-ric-chaubin.jpg?v=1777925383","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/frederic-chaubin-by-frederic-chaubin-9783836587792","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}