Tbilisi Roads Ministry Building
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The Bank of Georgia headquarters ( ka, საქართველოს ბანკის სათავო ოფისი) is a building in
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
. It was designed by architects
George Chakhava George Chakhava ( ka, გიორგი ჩახავა, 1923–2007) was a Georgian architect, best known for the Bank of Georgia headquarters in Tbilisi, which he co-designed with Zurab Jalaghania. George Chakhava was born in Tbilisi in 19 ...
and
Zurab Jalaghania Zurab (Georgian: ზურაბ) is a Georgian masculine given name. It derives from the Persian Sohrab, a name of the legendary warrior from Ferdowsi's ''Shahnameh''. It may refer to: *Zurab Adeishvili (born 1972), Georgian jurist and politician, ...
Udo Kultermann: ''Zeitgenössische Architektur in Osteuropa'', p. 59f for the Ministry of Highway Construction of the
Georgian SSR The Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (Georgian SSR; ka, საქართველოს საბჭოთა სოციალისტური რესპუბლიკა, tr; russian: Грузинская Советская Соц ...
and finished in 1975. The engineer was Temur Tkhilava. This 18-story building was acquired by the
Bank of Georgia , logo = Bank of Georgia logo.png , image = , image_size = , image_caption = Bank of Georgia , type = PLC , traded_as = , area_served = Georgia , key_people = Mel Carvill(Non-Executive Chairman) Archil Gachechiladze ( CEO) , industry ...
in 2007.


History

George Chakhava was Georgia's Deputy Minister of Highway Construction in the 1970s. Therefore, he was both the client and the lead architect of this project. He could choose the site location best suited for the design himself. The building costs were 6 million
roubles The ruble (American English) or rouble (Commonwealth English) (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is the currency unit of Belarus and Russia. Historically, it was the currency of the Russian Empire and of the Soviet Union. , currencies named ''rub ...
.Information per email from George Chakhava (Junior) and Nino Kandelaki It was completed in 1975. In 2007 the building was acquired by the Bank of Georgia. In the same year it was also conferred an Immovable Monument status under the National Monuments Acts. In 2009 a renovation and extension to 15,600 m2 was planned but not implemented. In July 2010 the building was the site of a contemporary art exhibition, "Frozen Moments: Architecture Speaks Back". Frozen Moments was a project organized by the Other Space Foundation and the Laura Palmer Foundation. The building was turned over to a week of cross-platform installations, performances, talks and activities that address the building and a constellation of political, economic, aesthetic and architectural associations. The project was financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture, the City of
Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and the Culture Program of the EC. From 2010 to 2011, a new main entrance and underground lobby were constructed, and its interior was completely renovated. It now has a total area of 13,500 m2.Bank of Georgia headquarters
The Bank of Georgia. Accessed April 7, 2012.
The building was briefly featured in the 2021 film Fast and Furious 9.


Architect

George Chakhava (გიორგი ჩახავა) studied architecture at the State Polytechnical University in Tbilisi and graduated in 1949. Since then he has worked as an architect with his own studio and realized projects in
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
as well as in
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
,
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked cou ...
,
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
,
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and
Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. The inspiration for his architecture was "the unique nature of my country with its individuality and beauty of each region in harmony with mountain villages", the design is also greatly influenced by
El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
and
Suprematism Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...
. Chakhava received several honors and awards. In 1983 he received the State Prize of the USSR Council of Ministers. The Georgian Union of Architects also awarded him with the Special Honor in Architecture. In 1991, he became an Honored Member of the International Academy of the Architecture of the Oriental Countries. Chakhava died on 25 August 2007.


Design

The wooded site lies in the outskirts of Tbilisi at the river Kura River. It has a steep slope, declining from west to east. Big parts of the building are lifted off the ground, the landscape runs through beneath. The structure is visible from far, three major roads leading from Tbilisi to the north pass the site. The building can be entered from both sites, at the higher and lower end. The structure consists of a monumental grid of interlocking concrete forms. Five horizontal parts with two stories each seem to be stapled on top of each other. Three parts are oriented at an east-west axis, at a right angle to the slope, two are north-south oriented, along the slope. The structure rests on and hangs from three cores. They contain the vertical circulation elements like stairs and elevators. The highest core has 18 stories. The building has a floor area of 13,500 m2.


Architecture

The design is based on a concept named Space City method (Georgian patent certificate #1538). The idea is to use and cover less ground and give the space below the building back to nature. The architect's reference was a forest: the cores are like the trunk, the horizontal parts the crowns. Between the earth and crowns there is a lot of free space for other living beings, which create one harmonious world with the forest. The Space City method is based on the same principle. This is meant to create an experience of well-being and comfort. The concept that the landscape or nature "flows" through under the building was used by other architects, too.
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
worked theoretically on the "house on pilotis" and realized this idea for example from 1947 on in the
Unité d'Habitation {{Infobox company , name = Moldtelecom , logo = , type = JSC , foundation = 1 April 1993 , location = Chişinău, Moldova , key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim , num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019 , industry = Telecommunica ...
.
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
used a similar idea at
Fallingwater Fallingwater is a house designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935 in the Laurel Highlands of southwest Pennsylvania, about southeast of Pittsburgh in the United States. It is built partly over a waterfall on Bear Run in the Mill R ...
in 1935.
Glenn Murcutt Glenn Marcus Murcutt AO (born 25 July 1936) is an Australian architect and winner of the 1992 Alvar Aalto Medal, the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2009 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the 2021 Praemium Imperiale. Gle ...
used the proverb "touch this earth lightly" literally in some of his designs. A current example is the Musée du quai Branly by
Jean Nouvel Jean Nouvel (; born 12 August 1945) is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of ''Mars 1976'' and ''Syndicat de l'Architecture'', France’s first labor union for architects. He has ob ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where a garden lies beneath a building. The design goes back to ideas of the Russian constructivists from the 1920s. The architect
El Lissitzky Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
designed with his horizontal skyscrapers (Wolkenbügel) 1924 a structure that looks very similar. He also divided the cores and office areas in vertical and horizontal elements as an antithesis to the American concept of the
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
. The style can be called "post-constructivist" and it is one of the best examples of this architectural concept in the city. Based on the use of fairfaced concrete and the sharp, geometrical volumes, the building can also be considered as part of the
Brutalism Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...
movement. The concept of the space city has strong connections to
Structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...
. Between Brutalism and Structuralism similar buildings were also built in other countries, for example the Yamanashi Communication Centre in Kofu by
Kenzo Tange is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Kenzō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *賢三, "wise, three" *健三, "healthy, three" *謙三, "humble, three" *健想, "healthy, concept" *建造, "bu ...
or
Habitat 67 HABITAT 67, or simply Habitat, is a housing complex at Cité du Havre, on the Saint Lawrence River, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, designed by Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. It originated in his master's thesis at the School of Architect ...
by
Moshe Safdie Moshe Safdie ( he, משה ספדיה; born July 14, 1938) is an architect, urban planner, educator, theorist, and author, with Israeli, Canadian, and American citizenship. He is known for incorporating principles of socially responsible desi ...
, both finished in 1967. German author Udo Kultermann also sees a formal connection to the user of the building. The structure represents in his opinion the internal use by the formal reference to streets and bridges. Describing the building, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' architecture critic Nikolai Ouroussoff said, "Rising on an incline between two highways, the building’s heavy cantilevered forms reflect the Soviet-era penchant for heroic scale. Yet they also relate sensitively to their context, celebrating the natural landscape that flows directly underneath the building. The composition of interlocking forms, conceived as a series of bridges, brings to mind the work of the Japanese Metabolists of the late ’60s and early ’70s, proof that Soviet architects weren’t working in an intellectual vacuum."


Design controversy

The design is alleged to be stolen from a building that was planned but not built in the
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
district of
Košíře Košíře is a district of Prague, part of the municipal area Prague 5. It is situated in the valley of the Motol brook between the districts Smíchov and Motol. Košíře became a town in 1896 and was joined onto Prague in 1921. History K ...
, by Czech architect
Karel Prager Karel Prager (August 24, 1923 in Kroměříž – May 31 2001 in Prague) was a Czech architect. He was one of the most prominent architects of modernist and brutalist architecture in the Czechoslovakia during the second half of 20th century. His ...
, who also designed the former Federal Assembly building in Prague. Includes gallery of images. There is a version of some of the structural ideas of this project in the "Tree of Life" (Árbol de la vida) building in Lecherias, Venezuela, by Venezuelan architect
Fruto Vivas Fruto is the Spanish word for "fruit". It may refer to: * Fruto Chamorro (1804–1855), President of Nicaragua * Emiliano Fruto Emiliano Ricardo Fruto roo'-toh/small> (born June 6, 1984) is a Colombian former relief pitcher in Major League Baseb ...
.


References


Further reading

* Coverstory of
Time Europe ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
8.3.1976: ''It's a hard live for Ivan - Ultramodern office complex under construction in Tblisi'' * Arthur Drexler: ''Transformations in modern architecture'', Paperback, 168 pages, Distributed by New York Graphic Society (1979), * Udo Kultermann: ''Zeitgenössische Architektur in Osteuropa (DuMont Dokumente)'' (DE), Cologne, DuMont 1985, 254 pages, * Architecture magazine
domus In Ancient Rome, the ''domus'' (plural ''domūs'', genitive ''domūs'' or ''domī'') was the type of town house occupied by the upper classes and some wealthy freedmen during the Republican and Imperial eras. It was found in almost all the ma ...
, (IT/EN
Issue 577, Dec 1977, Pages 36,37


External links



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- Private photos of the building from May 2010 on picasaweb Buildings and structures built in the Soviet Union Buildings and structures in Tbilisi Brutalist architecture