slavaroid

The impressive Hotel Thermal in Karlovy Vary – the historic spa town in western Bohemia renowned for its mineral springs – was built between 1967 and 1976.

The 19-storey reinforced concrete complex was designed by Czechoslovakian architects Věra und Vladimír Machonin in Functionalist style influenced by Brutalism.

Since its opening in 1977, the Thermal Hotel has hosted the prestigious Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

The whole building is currently undergoing debated renovation works.

Since the Eighties the Hotel Ezüstpart, “Silver Beach”, has been one of the most popular holiday spots on the shores of lake Balaton – both for local and foreign tourists.

The hotel was built between 1978 and 1983 by Pécs-born architect Ernő Tillai, a prize-winning designer who had a pioneering role in Hungarian urban planning after World War II.

The huge building, also dubbed Cheese House, features a distinctive shell-like façade. The exposed concrete balconies shape an aesthetically sophisticated wavy grid.

Socialist Modernism time capsule until the end of 2017, the Ezüstpart has recently undergone a major modernization and refurbishment process, losing a large part of its retro charm.

Icon of Socialist Modernism in Kiev, the Salute hotel was designed by Ukrainian architect Abraham Miletsky (also known for his dramatic, odd Crematorium in the Park of Memory) and built on the right bank of the Dnepr river between 1982 and 1984.

Named after – and looking alike – a series of Soviet space stations, the building should have been several floors higher (hence the massive base) but bureaucratic issues led to a shortening.
A spiral ramp runs all along inside the cylindrical reinforced concrete shape, connecting the 89 rooms.

Built in 1909 near Schierke, a small mountain village in the idyllic Harz National Park, the once luxurious hotel Villa Waldpark became after 1945 a recreation resort for the members of FDGB, the Free German Trade Union Federation of GDR.

Named after German political activist Hermann Duncker in the Sixties, the Erholungsheim was operational until 1990, when it ceased to exist together with the Deutsche Demokratische Republik itself.
Since then, the place has been left to rot and decay.

No restoration project is at the moment planned.

Slightly crumbly and vaguely ill-kept, the charming Cosmos has surely seen better days.

The state-owned hotel, planned by architects B. Banykin and Irina Kolbayeva, was constructed between 1974 and 1983 during the massive urban redevelopment of the capital following war and earthquake devastation.

In its golden years it was one of the largest and most modern accomodations in Moldavian SSR. Under the blazing starbursts and the neon capital letters on the top floor, swinging angled-shaped balconies form a dynamic concrete pattern overlooking Negruzzi square and Kotovsky equestrian statue.

Although not working anymore on its full capacity, the Cosmos hotel and its former glamour still twinkle like a Soviet modernist gem among post-war architecture in Chișinău.