Kyiv crematorium
Kyiv, 1975
"This is a sketch of the Kyiv crematorium, which was built in 1975 in Kyiv near the Baikove Cemetery. Architect Avraam Miletsky and spouses Ada Rybalchuk and Volodymyr Melnychenko worked on the project for 13 years.
The Kyiv crematorium is one of the most frequently mentioned buildings in the context of the architecture of Kyiv modernism. In the 1960s, the tragedy of Babyn Yar began to be talked about publicly (during World War II, mass shootings were carried out there, and the bodies of the dead were burned), so the idea of cremation provoked negative associations and reactions in the community. Nevertheless, in 1968 the construction of the complex began on the territory of the Baikove cemetery - the oldest and one of the most famous in Ukraine.
From the outside, the building looks like two giant seashells with their backs to each other. There are funeral halls where relatives and friends can say goodbye to the deceased. And directly the crematorium furnaces are underground."
Mahno Studio, Ukraine