Советский модернизм

Memory park and crematorium on Baikovsky Hill, Kiev, Ukraine, 1985 . This complex proposes a new organization of the mourning ritual. The whole territory of the park is designed in such a way that all of the mourning processions accompanying the hearse proceed along the park’s terraces without intersecting or seeing each other. The crematorium itself is hid- den behind the hill, and the elevated building of the farewell halls is shaped into a sculpture of reinforced concrete shells. The supporting wall of the columbarium was supposed to feature a monumental frieze, but the party leaders of the republic, questioning its ideological content, made the decision to pour concrete over the work that had been started on it. F. Novikov architect – A. Miletsky, artists – A. Rybachuk, V. Melnichenko

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