Relatively untouched by influence from the Western tradition of modernist architecture, Eastern European and Russian architects took flight during the last two decades of Soviet rule into wild and free experimentation, creating their own modernist/postmodernist styles based on the monumental aesthetic of Russian suprematism and often laced with extravagant decorative flourishes. French photographer Frédéric Chaubin travelled throughout the former Eastern bloc, bringing together in soft color images structures that were designed locally in a many-centered movement, without a central program, that permitted rampant individuality. For sheer bravado, look at Georgian architect Georgy Chakhava’s Roads Ministry Headquarters built on a steep riverbank with its concrete office modules jutting out in every direction from supports resembling the pylons of a highway overpass—an overpowering visual metaphor of a crossroads or an impossible traffic snarl. (Michael Weinstein)
Through October 3 at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan. (312)922-3432.
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