Those look almost photoshopped. Weird.

Wow, that building on the top looks amazing.

so that's what happened to the USSR! they didn't fall, they flew to another planet!

love the third one, especially. It looks like it was made for humans that walk on all four limbs.

P.s. Mr. Chaubin's page requires a password to ender.

@SunZhiQian:
That's what I thought when I first looked at them.

I like the one at top. It's lines are almost Art Deco.
Mmmmm. Ray-Gun punk.

I wonder what the interiors are like...an architect I know says that the problem with innovative, organic looking spaces is that they tend to cause a lot of interior dead-space.

@Balius: I hear what you're saying about the dead weight, but these buildings look relatively practical to me.

Go-go remote viewing! haha

Ten points for the first good "In Soviet Russia" joke.

In Soviet Russia, the buildings erect you!

The last two look like buildings from Battle Red star Galactica or Buck-eschev Rogersov from the 25th Soviet Century.

Very cool - tried to look at his site but it's passworded.. weird.

@Balius: Who gives a crap?! I would take a future house with nothing but dead space over some mcMansion anyday.

Thanks for this. These pics are really great.

These are awesome.

third picture = Jenga

Very cool exercises in architecture, but let's not forget that in the USSR the government paid for everything no matter how impractical. In the west those buildings would have cost too much for a good ROI.

@bakana:

Wow, those are awesome.

@Miranda Kali: Nice. Never thought of Ray-Gun punk before. Art-Deco... in the FUTURE.

@Balius: It's only interior dead space cause we're trying to furnish it with non-organic items. I wonder how many of those buildings have custom made furniture for it, or did in the 70s cause it probably didn't last and the new capitalists have made it all annoyingly western.

@deckard97: ROI is the dirge of human progress.

@aspiringexpatriate: huh... dirge doesn't mean what I thought it meant. Ah well. ROI still = the death of humanity.

the problem with a lot of this 'brutalist' 60s-70s-80s poured-concrete architecture (haha - i like that term 'formidable') is that they very seldom 'fit' into the local neighborhood; are very leaky; are very susceptible to hot/cold/humid environments; expensive/difficult to fix, and just have that darned-cold heartless-ness to them... though some certainly playful creations have come out of it (playful looking from a distance - 'lawn-chair architecture' - good from a comfortable distance (in your lawn chair) as long as you don't have to live/work in it...
Kinda like my architecture school building..
[www.arch.carleton.ca]

@designguybrown: Plus, I'd be suspicious of the longevity of Soviet concrete.

Still, awesome designs. There's also this from the twenties:

[www.nytimes.com]

The first and third building are the shizzle!! Love the art deco vibe and for some odd reason it reminds me of Paula Abdul's Rush, Rush vid

+ Watch video

OMG Keanu was in the Rush Rush video? I think even Paula gave a more convincing performance!

I'm a big fan of Brutalism so these pics (especially the third one) totally made my day.

Wow, concrete chic. Not exactly organic designs, but more innovative looking than the variations on the glass box of western architecture.

@designguybrown: Well, building with concrete is like building with stone. It's drafty. These are basically socialist castles. And yeah, probably suck to live in, but damn they look cool.

@aspiringexpatriate:
yah - 'tis often cool what can be done with poured-concrete - check out the wikipedia 'Brutalism' page for some further great pics/thoughts. I am sure that there are some exhaustive resources elsewhere.

This style always made me think that these structures were the complex skeletal remains of some impressive leviathan (always wanted to use that word in a sentence) - as if they just needed some great skin or armor or other accoutrements to finish it off..

by-the-by: prince charles hates it - so it is ok in my books...

Really nice! They'll be incredibly cool if they ever fall into disuse, too.

-Kle.

Anyone think the wedding palace (building 1) looks like the building from the most recent "House on Haunted Hill" movies? Looks like some movie designers were doing some cribbing.

These are fucking amazing. Why can't we have more cool buildings in NY? All skyscrapers and low-rise apartment buildings :|

Unbelievably cool, especially the third picture.

I wish we had some of these near here. Reminds me a bit of Habitat 67
[en.wikipedia.org]

that first one is on Tatooine, I'm tellin' ya!

the first one doesn't look real and the third looks hideous, reminds me of the picadilly hotel in manchester, another hideous building
[www.johndavies.uk.com]

but the second one is great, each room on the outside would have an optimal view, well the ones not facing the hill.. Soviets, good design, bad thinking

Okay call me a lowbrow but I find all three of these buildings beautiful! It's like someone gave some bright, naively futuristic architect straight out of a Soviet-era university a lot of money and no oversight--probably some kid who was a favorite of the local Party bosses.

I do hope Georgia, Ukraine and other countries from the Soviet Union find the money to preserve and restore some of these buildings.

I think it would be real shame if they tear them down and replace them with the same ol' boring 7-11s and Starbucks that are destroying our architectural diversity in this globalized world.

In the history of mankind I think the Soviets have to have been the oddest folks on the block.

It looks O-So-Futuristic. It has to be a philosophic statement about the Soviet Empire's forward-thinking ideals. Ha ha! Or something like that. The first one needs more windows.

Isnt that first building the one used for the external shots of the House on Haunted Hill remake?

@corpore-metal:

well, that "Дружба" (Friendship) Holiday center in Ukraine is still functioning. You can even find prices (in USD) here: [www.planeta100.com]

But it seems to me that it's still state's property. In Ukrainian modern reality it means that it's managers are literally distroying it, working for some private company's intrest. Then when the propery really becomes worth nothing, it is sold to that company for pennies.
So I'm not sure that quolity of the services is very good there...

FYI, it's Ukraine...not "the" Ukraine. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to catch a flight to the France...