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
