CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed (40th Ed)

Frédéric Chaubin's "Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed" stands as the architectural book of the year, recognized by the International Artbook and Film Festival in Perpignan, France.

Delving into the fourth age of Soviet architecture from 1970 to 1990, Chaubin explores 90 buildings in 14 former Soviet Republics. This period, considered by the author as an unknown burgeoning, contrasts with earlier architectural trends, showcasing a chaotic impulse driven by a decaying system.

Architects, taking advantage of the crumbling monolithic structures, embraced diverse influences and innovative approaches. Some projects, like the Druzhba Sanatorium in Yalta, reached heights beyond modernism, while others, such as the Palace of Weddings in Tbilisi, expressed creativity in an expressionist manner.

The book covers a spectrum, from a summer camp inspired by lunar base sketches (Prometheus youth camp, Bogatyr) to the "speaking architecture" of the USSR's final years, featuring a crematorium with concrete flames (Crematorium, Kiev) and a technological institute with a crashed flying saucer on the roof (Institute of Scientific Research, Kiev). These extraordinary structures, with their puzzle of styles and outlandish strategies, serve as remnants of a collapsing system. Through their diversity and local exoticism, they bear witness to the vast geography of the USSR and its eventual dissolution, immortalizing both the ideological dreams of the country and the era, from a cosmic obsession to the rebirth of identity.