FUGA hosts exhibition on "recycled" communist architecture

Budapest's FUGA architecture centre will offer a selection of international studies seeking ways to utilise Soviet-style housing estates in an exhibition opening on Friday.

The bids, tendered in a competition announced at this year's Architecture Biennale in Tallinn, offer ideas on "recycling" the space, structures, concepts and materials of communist architecture for use in the present and future, the organising Estonian Institute in Budapest told MTI.

Bidders in the competition were asked to make plans to improve Vaike-Oismae, a large housing estate in Tallinn built in the 1980s. Participating designers have come up with ideas of large parks and new functions, with increased focus on energy efficiency and resident involvement.

The competition was won by a team of students from Moscow's Strelka Institute.

The exhibition will be open till January 21 next year.