On Architecture

So much architecture is soul destroying. For me, Meriton is a prime example of this - buildings built to minimum standards, poorly designed and constructed, sapping the life of those living in and around them. Far too many buildings in Sydney are like this, boring, bland, identikit, saying nothing of the city in which they are constructed, indistinguishable from similar buildings half a world away.

Then there are other buildings, which are  inspiring, life affirming, buildings that speak of the time and place in which they were built, buildings that spark a sense of wonderment and awe, that make us marvel at  the genius of those who both created the vision and those who, more prosaically, put a physical form to the concept.

The Sydney Opera house and Harbour Bridge are two of the most internationally recognised of these. The Millau Viaduct for me, is another, the highest bridge in the world and a spectacular example of how beautiful a structure can be when it seamlessly combines both form and function.

And then there are the buildings that the world forgot, or has never even known about. I'm reading at the moment a book on the lost architecture of the Soviet Union - buildings that were commissioned and built in the last 20 years before the Wall came down and the Second World disappeared for ever. Frederic Chaubin photographed dozens of these buildings, forgotten and decaying on the edges of the old USSR and collated them in a book.

It is awe inspiring. At a time when the conventional image of the Eastern Bloc were of grey crumbling concrete buildings, leaching hope and individuality with last winters snow, the architects of these incredible structures were being given free reign. These men and women are getting old now, living in unjustified obscurity, acclaim being given to those whose imagination would never soar as high. Yes, Harry Seidler, I'm talking to you.

My favourite is that shown above, the Ministry of Highways Building in Tblisi, Georgia which was completed in 1974. The different levels, the way in which it appears to be part of, yet apart from the vegetation around, the juxtaposition of light and shadow, protrusion and recess, the simple fact that it is so utterly unlike anything else around all combine into an awe inspiring building that opens the mind to the possibilities that humans can create.

And this is not a singular example. There are flights of genius like this all over the former USSR.