{"product_id":"frederic-chaubin-cccp-cosmic-communist-constructions-photographed-40th-ed","title":"Frédéric Chaubin. Cccp. Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed. 40th Ed.","description":"\u003cp\u003eElected the architectural book of the year by the International Artbook and Film Festival in Perpignan, France, Fr?d?ric Chaubin's \u003cem\u003eCosmic Communist Constructions Photographed \u003c\/em\u003eexplores \u003cstrong\u003e90 buildings in 14 former Soviet Republics\u003c\/strong\u003e. Each of these structures expresses what Chaubin considers the \u003cstrong\u003efourth age of Soviet architecture\u003c\/strong\u003e, an unknown burgeoning that took place \u003cstrong\u003efrom 1970 until 1990\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Contrary to the 1920s and 1950s, no \"school\" or main trend emerges here. These buildings represent a\u003cstrong\u003e chaotic impulse brought about by a decaying system\u003c\/strong\u003e. Taking advantage of the collapsing monolithic structure, \u003cstrong\u003earchitects went far beyond modernism, \u003c\/strong\u003egoing back to the roots or freely innovating. Some of the daring ones completed projects that the \u003cstrong\u003eConstructivists\u003c\/strong\u003e would have dreamt of (Druzhba Sanatorium, Yalta), others expressed their imagination in an \u003cstrong\u003eexpressionist \u003c\/strong\u003eway (Palace of Weddings, Tbilisi). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA summer camp, inspired by sketches of a prototype lunar base, lays claim to Suprematist influence (Prometheus youth camp, Bogatyr). Then comes the \u003cstrong\u003e\"speaking architecture\"\u003c\/strong\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), a political center watching you like Big Brother (House of Soviets, Kaliningrad).\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In their puzzle of styles, their outlandish strategies, these buildings are \u003cstrong\u003eextraordinary remnants of a collapsing system\u003c\/strong\u003e. In their diversity and local exoticism, they testify both to the \u003cstrong\u003evast geography of the USSR \u003c\/strong\u003eand its encroaching end of the Soviet Union, the holes in a widening net. At the same time, they immortalize many of the \u003cstrong\u003eideological dreams of the country and its time\u003c\/strong\u003e, from an obsession with the cosmos to the rebirth of identity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Taschen","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50610167742738,"sku":"9783836587792","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_781d41b4-f96c-46d9-bcbd-0676c7017ed3.jpg?v=1732335207","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/frederic-chaubin-cccp-cosmic-communist-constructions-photographed-40th-ed","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}