Architectural Guide Slavutych

Slavutych, a Ukrainian provincial city north of Kyiv, seems in many respects to belong to a different era. Built after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 to replace the contaminated dwellings of workers from the power plant, Slavutych is the last ideal planned city of the Soviet Union. However, the city is still highly topical. Slavutych is an architectural manifestation of the Soviet people's friendship, with architects throughout the Soviet Union involved in its planning and construction. As a result, Slavutych's postmodernist architecture is characterised by socialist paradigms and regional influences from the Caucasus region, Baltic States and Russia. Furthermore, the search undertaken by the last Soviet generation of architects for an environmentally sustainable, habitable architecture is still relevant today. To mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear catastrophe, the "Architectural Guide Slavutych" documents numerous buildings and all of the city districts, thus providing a critical analysis of unique late Soviet architecture and urban planning in the context of perestroika.