In recent news from Kiev, Ukrainian rebels have seized the palace of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych in a symbolic coup d’etat, opening the enormous five-story estate and surrounding golf course to the public, who expressed outrage that such a private residence even existed. Vice recently toured the grounds and veritable McMansion, and the result is something like Cribs for tyrants.
The architecture of dictators has long been rife with ridiculous architecture, such as over-the-top gold leafing and egregiously oversized spaces. From Saddam Hussein to Dick Cheney, authoritarianism comes with its own particular brand of building that is a mix of lavish, indulgent narcissism and ostentatious displays of power and wealth.
Architect and researcher Jovanovic Weiss and his students at Columbia University have produced a catalog of the built works of dictators and autocrats. The 400-page Architecture vis-à-vis New Ideologies (available online) is organized into a graphic novel that illustrates the craziness of these situations and the people involved. Cartoons, collage, and doctored photos create a wild adventure though some of the most outrageous estates, from the Kenzo Tange-designed palace for Hafex El Assad in Syria to Kim Jong-Il’s fabled Ryugoung Hotel, as well as chapters on Stalin, Mao, and Castro, to name a few.
The graphic novel format makes for an accessible, even lighthearted take on the dense, at times very heavy information. The stories are clear for the most part, and include a wide range of actors and catalysts. It is like BIG’s Yes is More or Jimenez Lai’s Citizens of No Place, but about dictators and ideology rather than architectural speculation. A real treat, I tell ya!
