Inside the 'Machine for Living'

Abstract

The moment I walked through the rows of piloti, concrete columns that prop up the structure like stilts, and entered the semi-dark lobby, I was inundated with memories of similar high-rise concrete dwellings in the Soviet Union. The only thing missing was the all-permeating cabbage-soup stench that used to dominate the doorways, the stairs and other communal spaces of Moscow apartment blocks in the 1960s and 70s.