The aim of theĀ BasicsĀ series is to scrutinise critically the debate on architecture and urban development and also to help shape it. The series creates a platform for established authors and committed young researchers who publish texts in their native language, thus imbuing the series with an international air.
Never before have so many buildings been constructed as they are today, and never has architecture had so many technolog-ical and design possibilities at its disposal. And yet there is a sense of unease about contemporary architecture. The authors of this book show how in modern times we have lost the balance between outstanding works of architectu
The ancient city of Asmara is the capital of Eritrea and its largest settlement. Its beautiful architecture was rediscovered by outsiders in the early 1990s. In this book, the authors offer an original analysis of the colonial city, providing a history not only of the physical and visible urban reality, but also of a second, invisible city as it ex
This richly illustrated monograph discusses the post-war modernist architecture in the Soviet Lithuania, which, together with other Baltic republics, has been seen as exceptional, appropriating Western cultural models much faster and with greater passion, and was labelled "the Soviet West." Nevertheless, the matter of identifying the specific archi
Felix Novikov tells the dramatic story of Soviet architecture, portraying the conditions he worked in and how he collaborated with the government and other participants during the creative process. He explains how Soviet design and planning institutes were organized with reference to the Union of the Architects of the USSR and describes the creativ
Preservation is ordinarily reserved for architecture that is unique. So how would we go about preserving buildings that are utterly generic? Such is the case with Belyayevo, an ordinary residential district in Moscow. Belyayevo is a typical microrayon - the standardised neighbourhood system that successive Soviet regimes laid out across the USSR in