“We shall not have succeeded in demolishing everything unless we demolish the ruins as well. But the only way I can see of doing that is to use them to put up a lot of fine, well-designed buildings.”
- Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi
FOTO: Carrières Centrales, Casablanca, ca 1953
(c) Photothèque de l’École Nationale d’Architecture de Rabat, MarocVía IN THE DESERT OF MODERNITY - THE EXHIBITION + periferiadomestica
Demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior:
On June 2, 1931, a conference of Party elders identified the site of the future Palace of Soviets and condemned the Cathedral. This was formally endorsed on July 16 by the VTsIK commission. July 18 (the day when Izvestia announced the second, international contest), state commissioners started an inventory count of Cathedral properties. A small fraction of them were removed and stored at state expense and the expense of Donskoy Monastery; the rest perished. Demolition began on August 18; on December 5, 1931 the structure was finally destroyed in two rounds of explosions.
La Arquitectura de Gommorah | The Architecture of Gomorrah
via @arkinet BLOG
cold war echoes
(abandoned britain/ballardian)
