Picture a suburb and you probably imagine cookie-cutter houses with two-car garages and over-fertilized lawns. But in formerly communist countries, they look a little different. Think towering apartment blocks, prefabricated concrete panels, and loads of gray.
Such structures dominate the peripheries of cities across what was once the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. They go by varying names, from Plattenbau in East Germany to Panelház in Hungary to Brezhnevki in Russia. All were built after World War II to cheaply house the masses in a way that jived with communist ideology. Near-identical two- and three-bedroom apartments included amenities like central heat, private bathrooms, and elevators. Standardization and mass production were paramount, though idiosyncrasies—a pop of color here, a geometric motif there—inevitably crept in.Related Stories
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"From a graphic designer's point-of-view, the repetition of the patterns and design of the structures is absolutely breathtaking and, at times, almost hypnotic," they say.
The duo began photographing modernist and brutalist architecture in central and eastern Europe after founding Zupagrafika as a design studio and publishing house in 2012. On snowy winter days, they'd wander the peripheries of Berlin, Kiev, and Warsaw with DSLRs, slowly working their way towards the city centers. Those images served as references for kits of illustrated cut-outs and other architectural publications before they decided to turn them into a proper book of their own.- An iPhone app that protects your privacy —for real
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