House of Soviets (Kaliningrad)

The House of Soviets is an unfinished building in the center of the city of Kaliningrad in the Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia. The local people often refer to it as the "buried robot" because its appearance resembles the head of a giant robot buried in the ground up to the shoulders. Intended as the central administration building of the oblast, it was built on the original site of the 13th century Königsberg Castle.[1]

The unfinished shell of the building in 2002

Location

The building is located in the central square of Kaliningrad, at the intersection of Shevchenko and Leninski Avenues. Although it is widely claimed that the House of Soviets was built directly on top of the site of Königsberg Castle, it stands to the east, on the site of the castle's moat.

History

Königsberg Castle was severely damaged during the bombing of Königsberg in World War II. The city came under the control of the USSR after the war and the Soviet authorities opted not to preserve the ruins of the castle, saying it was a centre of fascism.[2] What remained of the castle was blown up and cleared away between 1967 and 1969.[3]

The vision for the redevelopment was heavily influenced by works of Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer, specifically the development of the Brazilian city of Brasília.[3] Two architectural competitions were held for the redevelopment of the area, in 1964 and 1974, which included design firms from Moscow and Leningrad and from the then Soviet republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.[3] The design chosen was by Yulian Lvovich Shvartsbreim, a winner of the USSR State Prize and well respected in Soviet Russia,[3] and his studio TsNIIEP.

After 2005 paint job

Construction started in 1970 on what was intended to be the central administration building of the Kaliningrad Oblast. The heavy concrete structure was placed on top of ruins, causing structural problems that were exacerbated by the marshy underlying soil.[3] The foundations proved to be inadequate to support the original 28-story plan and only 21 stories were completed.[4] Development was stopped in 1985 after the regional Party Committee lost interest in the project and ran out of funding.[5] In 1992 there was an attempt to complete construction with Danish funding, but it was abandoned, and the building remained unfinished. People have broken in and painted graffiti inside and out.[6][7]

In 2005, for Kaliningrad's 60th and Königsberg's 750th anniversary, also marked by a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the exterior was painted light blue and windows were installed. The new color diminished the sense of brooding mass, but some criticized the update as a modern Potemkin façade.[8] The interior remained unfinished and unusable.

In the 2010s, a German consultant recommended tearing down the entire structure and building anew as cheaper and safer than attempting to repair and finish the existing shell. A proposal was made to recreate the castle in a modified form as a tourist attraction,[8] as part of the Heart of the City project, which originally envisaged rebuilding the House of Soviets as a hotel and conference center.[9] While some consider the building to be one of the worst examples of post-war Soviet architecture, the House of Soviets was seen by others as an important work of Brutalist architecture, particularly before its pastel paint job.[2]

Demolition of the building was announced on 12 November 2020, and was then expected to begin in early 2021. Fragments of the torn-down building might be given away or sold as souvenirs.[10] Its redevelopment is part of the projected Heart of the City project to replace the former castle site and its surroundings with a multi-purpose city center development. The demolition process began on 18 May 2023.

The demolition of the building's upper floors on October 2023.
The demolition of the building's upper floors in October 2023.

See also

References
  1. "Get to Know Kaliningrad, Russia's Smallest Region".
  2. Alexander Kwiatkowski (16 September 2002). "Kaliningrad rediscovers its history". BBC News. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  3. Oleg Vasyutin; Alexander Popadin (13 November 2013). "Korolevskaya gora (King"s Mountain) in Kaliningrad: Projects and concepts for its development". issuu.com. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  4. "Dom Sovietov Kaliningrad". architectuul.com. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  5. "ARTGUIDE /// NATIONAL CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ARTS /// KALININGRAD BRANCH". art-guide.ncca-kaliningrad.ru.
  6. "House of Soviets in Kaliningrad to be demolished" (video, 4 mins 26 secs). Deutsche Welle. 22 July 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  7. Irina Sedunova (10 January 2022). "The Soviet palace that people love to hate" (video, 10 mins, 20 secs). BBC. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  8. Tim Verlaan (16 May 2013). "The Rebuilding of a 'Hornet's Nest' in Kaliningrad". Failed Architecture. Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 2 July 2014.
  9. "'Post-Castle' in Kaliningrad". Studio 44. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  10. "Russian city to demolish derided 'Robot' building". Associated Press. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 17 January 2022.

54.7106°N 20.5128°E / 54.7106; 20.5128

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