Marija Drėmaitė (PDF)
https://doi.org/10.53631/DIS/2017.8.8
The variety of housing forms in the late Soviet period prompts attention to the diversity of the housing of artists in the context of the standardisation of living space as a privilege of the creative elite. The artists could apply for additional housing space motivated by the need for a creative studio. This led to non-standard living and creative spaces that stood out in the everyday accommodation environment. In 1962, the possibility of building cooperative flats was restored throughout the Soviet Union. Members of creative organisations could also form housing cooperatives and initiate construction. Individually designed houses and flats with architectural distinctiveness and non-standard housing, as opposed to mass-standardised projects, were made possible by the rather privileged position of creative studios. The article analyses two examples: the residential cottages of Composers’ Village with a concert hall in Žvėrynas, Vilnius (architect Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas, 1960–1966) and the cooperative housing ‘Menas’ block cottages of the Artists’ Union in Antakalnis, Vilnius (architect Algimantas Mačiulis, 1967–1970), which are exceptional in the context of standardisation of residential space in terms of its social and architectural nature. Other smaller examples are also discussed, highlighting the architectural and social privileges of the creative elite in relation to residential space.
Keywords: socialist modernism, cooperative cottages, Composers’ Village, Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas, Algimantas Mačiulis