View this post on Instagram

The Romanita Tower in Chisinau, Moldova, where I travelled to from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia to spend a week shooting this building in particular. Translating directly from Romanian into 'Camomile', my stoic AirBnb host poetically likened the moniker to naming a hurricane, an early indication of how the monolithic structure was perceived by locals. A student that I met at a cafe declined my request to help with me translating for my project, citing rumours that homeless people lived inside the building (which as far as my experience went, is untrue). Due to its cylindrical shape, apartments were very small and awkward in their respective layouts. The diversity of the ethnicities that inhabit the building was likely the product of resettling during Soviet times, with many Bulgarians, Russians and Ukrainians obliged to move to Moldova as part of the Kremlin's grand Soviet vision. Once the Union collapsed, and new roots established, many decided to stay. The tower was a convenient half hour walk away from where I was staying, permitting me to visit it on multiple occasions, specifically to shoot the exteriors in different light conditions. My final visit (when I took this photo) was the first time during this entire project that I felt in danger, a story for another day. To put it briefly, I was advised not to return ???????????????? #concretecitizens #brutal #architecture #brutgroup #romanita #brutalist #sovietmodernism #brutalism #chisinau #brutal_architecture #moldova #brutalistarchitecture

A post shared by Alex Schoelcher (@alexschoelcher) on