Hotel “Salyut”

 The turbid history of the interaction between architectural thought and the bureaucratic party apparatus is represented in the current appearance of the hotel “Salute”. According to the original idea of the collective authors of the hotel on the Slava Square, this had to be a skyscraper designed with the application of innovative construction, which included using shrouds.

The project received support from the party leadership, but, after the collective refused to add to the authors list the party curator, the implementation process began to decelerate. This also entailed funding problems and as a result the original project had to be, in the full sense of the word, cut to more than a half – despite the fact that the foundation has been designed for much higher construction.

The architects tried to save the project, developing its numerous variations already after the start of its building process: it was necessary to balance the disproportionate capacity of stylobate. The amazing form of the hotel “Salute” was the result of a direct collision between architecture and power.

Instead of the steel cables that have to sustain the slabs, the authors used 19 reinforced concrete walls between the rooms that cantilevery go  from the central nucleus with lifts and circular ramp. Thus, because of the small number of rooms and the inability to expand them, the hotel was not effective from the beginning.

Hotel Salyut,
designed: 1976-1982
built: 1982-1984
Architect: Avraam Miletsky, N. Slogotskaya, Vladimir Shevchenko
Collaborateurs: E: J. Shames, S. Syrota, E. Furmanov
Project Institute: Kievproyekt

Research group of the “Superstructure” project – Alex Bykov, Oleksandr Burlaka and Oleksiy Radynski