Irkutsk regionalism as a trend of Soviet modernism

Abstract

The article investigates the monuments of Irkutsk Soviet modernism and early postmodernism in order to reveal their identity and peculiarities, to determine the significance of these structures for the specific urban environment of the Eastern Siberian capital, as well as for the history of modern architecture as a research discipline. The research involved a review of bibliographic sources, a full-scale survey of objects belonging to the mentioned periods, and in-person interviews with the architects of the buildings under study and other Irkutsk citizens. Along with attracting interest to the urgent problems of cultural significance, objective assessment, and modern appearance of the heritage of the second half of the 20th century, the authors clarified the chronological framework of the main stages in the development of the modern city and provided a scientific definition of the Irkutsk regionalism term. As a result, it was established that the response to the challenges of the late Soviet years became a recognizable architectural segment, which, although rapturing the fabric of historical urban environment, reassembles it for functional aspiration for the future. The Irkutsk architecture, having an industrial beginning, has nevertheless remained authorial, and even uncompromising in the doctrines of Vladimir A. Pavlov and his followers, who supported his initiatives in the following era of postmodernism.