Soviet-era Concrete

There’s a few fans of Soviet-era architecture on here. Check out https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/dec/02/hotels-fit-for-a-kgb-officer-soviet-cities-in-the-twilight-in-pictures

nice link – thanks!

Visited the museum in Osh (Kyrgystan) in 2008 – the view over the city to the mountains beyond was a little more impressive than the museum itself.

Incredible structures ,but(to me)they always feel visually, like a cold,hard slap in the face, even on a sunny day 🙂

More photos (and others) here

Some are just a bit bonkers really

Man that clickbait is irritating!

There’s a few fans of Soviet-era architecture on here. Check out

Great link, enjoyed that!

Nice one.
We had some batshit concrete stuff in Havana but nothing to really match the Russian Embassy.

Jose Marti Memorial comes pretty close.

If you like that, watch this:

Genuinely eerie place that’s mentioned in the article. The video takes some getting going, but oh my god the place is spooky. Literally looks like they shut the door one day and forgot to back to work the next. Hard to believe looking at the tech that these hunks were destined for space.

So cool. Literally awesome.

I love it
That book on Soviet bus stops is stunning.

That Boran hanger collapsed, AFAIK there are only two others surviving, one in Russia somewhere and the other in the Speyer museum in Germany. You can laugh but the space shuttle isn’t much more advanced, the automatic flight controls were extremely accurate for what they were.

I also misread the title as Concorde and thought we were talking about the Tupolev.

I stayed at the KGB hotel in Tallin.

Although my morning run took me to somewhere more interesting and famous.

Although it’s famous for more modern reasons.

I’m fairly sure I stayed in the hotel cosmos in 1991 on a school trip.

If you like the Ruski, then you need to follow this chap. Fascinating insight into modern and past Russia and ex Soviet States.

(Warning, he hooks you in…)

Thanks scuttler, right up my street.so much of the communist architecture is bonkers in scale. The size of the titanium statue. Reminds me of the Henry moore’s that get nicked for scrap.

I stayed in the hotel cosmos in 1990. Interesting experience. I remember going to the reception and asking politely if they spoke english ” Niet” and she turned away and ignored me. the jewel in the crown of intourist!

It was quite stark when visiting Prague last January – the Soviet buildings were brutalist. The shopping centre was shocking, considering where it was, but we went to see it.

Hotel Cosmos. I lived there for 9 months in 1992 I think it was. Right across the road was the park where Pet Shop Boys filmed one of their videos. Strange times.

Buran had to be reasonably advanced as it was designed for unmanned flight. The one in Speyer was powered by jet engines for developing the unmanned runway landings so not actually for venturing into space.

I can imagine a Russian architect giving a nod of approval to Preston bus station.

I’ve got an 1100 tonne concrete seismic block at work – does that count? (floats on 15mm of air suspension so I don’t shake the building down).