Architecture Wed Jul 16 2008

CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed

While life in the Soviet Union was difficult for the general populous, it was anything but for the architects of the defunct Communist state. Massive infrastructure and building projects kept commissions and creativity flowing. The Chicago Architecture Foundation, on July 10th, opened a photograph exhibit displaying some of the building projects that shaped the Modernist aesthetic.

Unlike the balance of Soviet architecture, the exhibit seeks to highlight the particular building projects that were constructed based upon a set of ideals, rather than the utilitarian needs of housing as many people as quickly as possible. Analyzed within the spirit of it's age, the buildings stand as heros to the glory of industry and a refute to the stylized, stagnant decoration that turn of the century architects associated with old class structures and formal society.

The exhibit will run to October 3rd and is located at the CAF, John Buck Lecture Hall Gallery. To visit the CAF webpage about this exhibit, click here.

- Carl Giometti