Germans Share Ideas on Renovating Soviet Buildings

The ubiquitous pre-fabricated panel buildings that sprang up around the Soviet Union have become one of the calling cards of the former Eastern Bloc. Considered unattractive and outdated at best, and at worst in a poor state of repair and barely conforming to modern standards of living, the question of what to do with the buildings is a burning one, not least for their inhabitants.

The solution may lie partly in the experience of Germany, which faces the same problem in federal districts of former East Germany, and during the past 15 years has actively worked on renovating its panel buildings. Architects from Germany and Russia will gather to discuss the issue of modernization and exchange ideas at a conference next week entitled “Modernizing Pre-Fabricated Panel Buildings,” followed by an exhibition entitled “Modernizing Pre-Fabricated Panel Buildings. Germany’s Experience” organized within the framework of the Week of Germany in St. Petersburg.
“The concept of pre-fabricated panel buildings is in Germany primarily associated with the former German Democratic Republic,” said Christina Grawe, the exhibition’s curator in Germany.

“After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the image of such buildings rapidly deteriorated. Many consider them to be the embodiment of standard, unappealing East German architecture, but this is a false conception. There were such constructions in West Germany too. In Berlin, there are apartments as well as clubs and other entertainment venues in pre-fabricated panel buildings that remain popular even after reunification,” she said.

Having gradually overcome their reputation as architectural pariahs, the potential of such buildings is now recognized in Germany and they are continuously modernized in a variety of ways that will be showcased at the exhibition.

“The exhibition will present the most successful examples of how, during the past 15 years in Germany, panel buildings and their surrounding territory have been transformed, along with the architectural and design methods used to make them more attractive” said Grawe.

Home Sweet Home

The German projects on display will include residential buildings, public buildings and infrastructure, some of which were realized as part of large-scale city reconstruction programs.

Grawe said that panel buildings are often used for a different purpose following redevelopment. She cited the example of a workers’ hostel that was turned into a community center. Another of the projects shown at the exhibition is a cottage built from elements of a deconstructed panel building.

The Russian part of the exhibition will portray the current state of pre-fabricated panel architecture in the country and attempts to renovate such buildings. The exhibits range from completed projects to fantastical designs, with the aim of illustrating both the physical and ideological foundation to which German experience could be applied.

The focus of both the German and Russian parts of the exhibition is residential buildings.

“The main question tackled by the Russian part of the exhibition is of course large-scale residential panel buildings and what to do with them,” said Vladimir Frolov, curator of the Russian part of the exhibition.

In Germany, many pre-fabricated panel residential buildings were left empty following a decline in the urban population of both eastern and western Germany about ten years ago. This is far from the case in Russia, where much of the urban population still lives in Krushchyovki, as the standard five-story panel buildings built in the 1950s and 60s during the reign of Nikita Krushchev are known.
“Unlike Germany, there are hardly any ‘extra’ buildings abandoned by their residents, which could be turned into middle-class housing by means of a new design, technical innovations and increased space,” said Frolov. “On the contrary, we have a real housing deficit.”

Frolov said that German experience in the sphere of updating panel buildings was already being applied in Russia.

“The Russian part of the exhibition includes projects in St. Petersburg designed by the Berlin architectural bureau nps.tchoban.voss,” he said. “The designs would modernize industrial buildings dating from the late Soviet era by turning them into interesting new architectural objects without demolition or new construction.”

Differing Conditions

As well as parallels between such architecture in Russia and Germany, contrasts in the task facing the two countries and the differing situations and existing conditions will also be reliance calling card in the exhibition.

“The exhibition does not present universal recipes for successful modernization,” said Grawe. “By showing a range of diverse building tasks, it demonstrates that behind the seemingly dull theme of modernizing panel buildings, there is room for fantasy and imagination.”

“German experience can be used where it is appropriate and suitable,” said Frolov.

Grawe said that the exhibition would demonstrate how modernization can significantly increase the quality of panel buildings, both in terms of technology and aesthetics. Non-traditional solutions will comprise a vital part of the work on display.

“The results of modernization need not be boring,” she added.

In conjunction with the exhibition in St. Petersburg, the Chamber of Architects in Germany has organized a competition to find the best work in the sphere of urban construction, landscape architecture, infrastructure and residential accommodation. The jury will consist of representatives from German architectural bureaus.

The exhibition also features a series of photos taken by Alexei Naroditsky. Titled “Pigeonholes,” the photos depict the often dilapidated condition of panel buildings on the outskirts of Moscow today.

The project is sponsored by the German Consulate in St. Petersburg along with the German Chamber of Architects.

The conference “Modernizing Pre-Fabricated Panel Buildings” will take place at the Pro Arte Institute in the Peter and Paul Fortress on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The exhibition “Modernizing Pre-Fabricated Panel Buildings. Germany’s Experience” runs from April 21 to May 4, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Nevskaya Kurtina of the Peter and Paul Fortress. www.deutsche-woche.ru
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