Frederic Chaubin is a Frenchman I would like to meet. He spent many years travelling the length and breadth of the former USSR. His mission was to find, inspect and photograph brutalist and constructivist structures. The culmination of this project is the fascinating book of photography ‘CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed’, published by Taschen in 2011. In his introduction Chaubin credits the discovery of a second hand book on Soviet architecture in Tbilisi and two buildings in the city as his inspiration. One is The Palace of Weddings which was inhabited by a now deceased Oligarch and lies in a state of relative disrepair since 2008.
It is the second one that has been resurrected and is a perfect example of why these structures should be given a second life.
The former Ministry of Transport was completed in 1975. It was designed by George Chakhava. It is located on a steep slope high above the banks of the Kura River in North Tbilisi. Structurally it comprises of interlocking rectangles of concrete rising above the mature trees beneath. The tallest core is 18 stories high and the structure provides 13,500m2 of space with no ground floor. When it fell into decay in the 90s after Georgia’s independence, it looked, from the other side of the river, the very image of the dystopic concrete jungle.
Chakhava has his own street in Tbilisi. He designed many structures of similar brutalist style in many countries. He patented the concept of ‘The Space City” in Georgia, meaning the concept of building high off the ground and allowing either nature or infrastructure to interact with the structure itself. This idea was not entirely original or new, Frank Lloyd Wright used the concept in his Falling Water design in 1935. The early Constructivists of the 1920s were previous exponents of the concept of concrete stilts to elevate the main body of a buildings structure to allow through routes beneath. Le Corbusier also developed his concept of elevated structures throughout his career, as seen in his Pavillion Suisse and Unite d’Habitations in Berlin and Marseilles.
There are hundreds if not thousands of structures like this one all over the former soviet states. Many are unfortunately in a state of disrepair as budgets and ideas are in short supply as to what to do with them. It is a shame as many of them are starkly and uniquely beautiful in their own right. Chakhava died in 2007 and he never got to see his iconic structure gain its second life.
The Ministry of Transport was purchased in a stroke of capitalist irony by the Bank of Georgia in 2007 with the intension of reincarnating it as their new Headquarters. They completely refurbished the interior to make it fit for purpose as a bank. They also constructed a ground level glass box allowing lift and escalator access to an underground car park and removing the visual clutter of the car park from the base the structure. The façade has been re-rendered in cream and some of the climbing ivy has been sensitively retained. In bright sunlight the building looks magnificent. I am sure Chakhava would have appreciated the second life of his unique ministry of transport.
It is the second one that has been resurrected and is a perfect example of why these structures should be given a second life.
The former Ministry of Transport was completed in 1975. It was designed by George Chakhava. It is located on a steep slope high above the banks of the Kura River in North Tbilisi. Structurally it comprises of interlocking rectangles of concrete rising above the mature trees beneath. The tallest core is 18 stories high and the structure provides 13,500m2 of space with no ground floor. When it fell into decay in the 90s after Georgia’s independence, it looked, from the other side of the river, the very image of the dystopic concrete jungle.
Chakhava has his own street in Tbilisi. He designed many structures of similar brutalist style in many countries. He patented the concept of ‘The Space City” in Georgia, meaning the concept of building high off the ground and allowing either nature or infrastructure to interact with the structure itself. This idea was not entirely original or new, Frank Lloyd Wright used the concept in his Falling Water design in 1935. The early Constructivists of the 1920s were previous exponents of the concept of concrete stilts to elevate the main body of a buildings structure to allow through routes beneath. Le Corbusier also developed his concept of elevated structures throughout his career, as seen in his Pavillion Suisse and Unite d’Habitations in Berlin and Marseilles.
There are hundreds if not thousands of structures like this one all over the former soviet states. Many are unfortunately in a state of disrepair as budgets and ideas are in short supply as to what to do with them. It is a shame as many of them are starkly and uniquely beautiful in their own right. Chakhava died in 2007 and he never got to see his iconic structure gain its second life.
The Ministry of Transport was purchased in a stroke of capitalist irony by the Bank of Georgia in 2007 with the intension of reincarnating it as their new Headquarters. They completely refurbished the interior to make it fit for purpose as a bank. They also constructed a ground level glass box allowing lift and escalator access to an underground car park and removing the visual clutter of the car park from the base the structure. The façade has been re-rendered in cream and some of the climbing ivy has been sensitively retained. In bright sunlight the building looks magnificent. I am sure Chakhava would have appreciated the second life of his unique ministry of transport.