THE IRON FOUNTAIN BUILT IN THE AREA OF THE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF GYUMRI, ARMENIA BY ARTHUR TARKHANYAN, 1982. THE FOUNTAIN STILL STANDS AFTER A 1988 EARTHQUAKE DESTROYED MOST OF THE CITY.

STEFANO PEREGO’S EXPLORATION OF ARCHITECTURE IN SOVIET ASIA

Architecture, Italy

08.01.2021

Photography courtesy of artist, Stefano Perego

RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS, BUILT IN THE 1980’S. TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN.

Stefano Perego is a photographer based in Milan, Italy who is exploring modernism, brutalism and postmodernism architecture by documenting buildings in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Caucasus, Central Asia and in former Yugoslavia. Perego began by capturing abandoned industrial areas of Northern Italy and throughout Europe developing what has become a vast catalogue of structures with forward thinking design by nations that no longer exist or in some cases abandoned due to natural disaster and war.

Stefano shared a selection of works built in the 70s, 80s, and 90s in Georgia, Armenia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan that are emblematic of a culture clash he witnessed in design elements such as traditional artisan work like colorful mosaics mixed with concrete façades pushed by the state as a symbol of modernity.

AL-FARABI KAZAKH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, BY ARCHITECT V.P. BONDARENKO, 1970’S. ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN.

THE FORMER MINISTRY OF HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION OF GEORGIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, NOW BANK OF GEORGIA. BY ARCHITECTS GEORGE CHAKHAVA AND ZURAB JALAGHANIA, 1975, TBILISI, GEORGIA.