Unconscious Memories of the System: Standardised Architecture Following the USSR’s Collapse

• In Event: Erasure and Resilience in Eastern European Architectures

Abstract

Although over 30 years have passed since the collapse of the USSR, architects continue to reproduce patterns rooted in the shared design legacy of the former Soviet republics and people’s democracies. Of particular interest is standardized design, including design organizations, design process, and construction norms, which remains concentrated in surviving former state design institutes, often still led by architects trained in the Cold War era. By combining an analysis of disintegrating nomenclatures with interviews with participants in this process across several post-Soviet republics, it is possible to examine the persistence of Soviet thought patterns in a new reality.

Author

• Dimitrij Zadorin