The child going to school walking on the open heating pipes, plus the contrasts of the inner yard, symbolise for me the situation at that time !
"What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
This one is the reason I was in Leningrad ! To design small prefabricated "datchas" (three morrys, built in one day) that were one among thousands of the "joint-ventures" of that era !
I have fond memories of this work because we changed a factory that was making Kalaschnikov's butt and ammunition crates into a house building company ! We had to work with the district's soviets (ah, those babouchkas !) so it wouldn't be bought and capitalized by the new mafia... Wasn't without danger as one of our "banker" finished in the Neva with concrete shoes !!!
Those should still be at the Lenexpo site !
The first prototype...
Inside the second version, with local made furniture, Finnish style :-) !
Many negotiated with oversea firms they were working for... And many were crying when they had it, because it was the first time they owned a house (not the land)!
Quite an experience ! "What can I do, What can I write, Against the fall of Night". A.E. Housman
