Main entry:

Meuser, Philipp, 1969- author.

Title & Author:

Seismic modernism : architecture and housing in Soviet Tashkent / Philipp Meuser ; translated by Clarice Knowles (English) and Dmitrij Chmelnizki (Russian).

Edition:

[Second edition].

Publication:

Berlin : DOM publishers, 2026.

Description:

304 pages : illustrations (black and white, and colour) ; 23 cm

Notes:
Originally published: 2016.
"Precisely ten years ago after its first publication, Seismic modernism: architecture and housing in Soviet Tashkent returns to print in an unchanged edition ... The text remains unaltered. Deliberately so - not as a limitation but as a strength."--Prologue to the second edition.
Includes bibliographical references.
Preface The Mecca of mass housing and Soviet urbanism -- Introduction Tashkent from Russian Turkestan to Stalin's vision of the Soviet empire -- Phase I: 1956 to 1966 The beginnings of serial mass housing in Tashkent -- Phase II: 1966 to 1971 Serial mass housing from the earthquake to the rebuilding effort -- Phase III: 1971 to 1983 Industrial construction and the search for a national style in Soviet mass housing -- Phase IV: 1983 to 1991 A leap in scale with monolithic standard designs.
English, with Russian translation following (pages 269-295).

Summary:

Tashkent, the southernmost metropolis of millions in the Soviet Union, is a city redolent with architectural contrasts and paradoxes. Home to the most beautiful prefabricated buildings in the world, it features a prominent urban duality predicated upon the oriental Old City and the Russian New City. Never was this contrast brought into sharper focus than during the severe earthquake of 1966 which left the New City relatively unscathed but the Old City in ruins. Yet one respite was offered: a rebuilding effort which triggered an upsurge of innovation. The city thus became the face of seismic modernism - unprecedented in history, the earthquake stimulated the modernisation of urban development in Tashkent. Architects incorporated regional building traditions in their socialist modern designs, including the visually intriguing facade mosaics attributed to the little-known Zharsky brothers. The rebuilding of Tashkent provides a perfect example of Soviet ideas about urban planning - in which technical standardisation and social requirements were no more of a contradiction than the design of experimental living concepts and the simultaneous search for an expression of national identity in building. Tashkent thus represents a unique example of radical urban redevelopment in a Soviet megacity with standard designs.

ISBN:

9783869229935 hardback
3869229934

Subject:

Architecture Uzbekistan Tashkent History.
City planning Uzbekistan Tashkent History 20th century.
Urban renewal Uzbekistan Tashkent History 20th century.
Earthquake resistant design Uzbekistan Tashkent.
Architecture Ouzbékistan Tachkent Histoire.
Conception parasismique Ouzbékistan Tachkent.
Rénovation urbaine Ouzbékistan Tachkent Histoire 20e siècle.
Architecture History.
Earthquake resistant design
Tashkent (Uzbekistan) Buildings, structures, etc.
Uzbekistan Tashkent
Uzbekistan

Form/genre:

Translations

Added entries:

Knowles, Clarice, translator.
Chmelnizki, Dmitrij, translator.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 326191
Call No.: 326191
Copy: 1
Status: Available