The tumult of Kiev's postwar history is evident in its architecture: The bombast of Stalin's elephantine classicism was abruptly superseded by swaths of grimly utilitarian housing after Khrushchev's turn against “unnecessary excess.” Following the disintegration of the U.S.S.R., speculative developers in the Ukrainian capital reacted to these drab slabs with crass Postmodernism. The pendulum may have swung again with the $380 million renovation of the city's Olympic Stadium. Its design, by the German architectural firm von Gerkan, Marg und Partner (GMP), harks back to what project director Christian Hoffmann sees as the better qualities of Kiev's 1960s rationalist architecture: technical ingenuity and tectonic clarity.
The stadium was renovated to host a major soccer tournament, Euro 2012—seen as an important way of improving Ukraine's image. However, the building's role as a national symbol is balanced against its responsibilities as a piece of the city. “We have designed stadia elsewhere that are more spectacular,” says Hoffmann, “but here we are in the middle of the city and didn't want to be so 'noisy.' ”
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