The juxtapositions you find in Vyborg help you grasp the idea of multiple, simultaneous, politically defined modernities. Soviet modernism in this sense is a part of a larger architectural puzzle. Yet it is especially interesting because ideology, by twisting and fermenting itself within the architecture, has taken on some very curious forms. One of them in Russia is called the spetsobjekt, or “special object” — a factory, research institute, or any utilitarian facility vaguely related to military needs or to some shady branch of law enforcement. This was my main subject in BLOC. A spetsobjekt is a fenced-off compound that may have completely lost its practical or technological relevance, yet nobody is in a hurry to remove the security regime around it. These shells of secrecy with no content inside them are a very prominent feature of the post-Soviet city. [...]
There is a prevailing idea about the sinister and ominous qualities of Soviet architecture and its potential to restrict freedom of thought and movement. While not unfounded, this discourse suggests an interaction between only two actors — the state and the individual. In reality, there were other actors in play, namely the architect and the bureaucratic chain of approval. The initial drafts of Soviet city planners were often brilliant and sophisticated, infused with an optimistic outlook and a positive vision of humanity. There is a qualitative gap between what was planned and the reality of what was accomplished, and I'm curious as to whether the latter came out as it did precisely because it was conceived in an idealistic, purist, ostensibly egalitarian way. Perhaps there is a seed of oppression inherent in idealism itself? [...]
One of the great “successes” of Soviet architecture was bringing geometry to life. The visual vocabulary of the urban environment consisted of basic figures, tiled fragments, angular flows and regular sections. Paradoxically, the more pronounced the structure, the more vulnerable it is to overgrowth. Over time, grids get overlaid by new grids, casual elements proliferate, until it all becomes quite abstract.
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