Panelki: Construct Your Socialist Prefab Panel Block

by Zupagrafika

Panelki by Zupagrafika allows readers to assemble a genuine Soviet-era pre-cast block, panel by panel, while learning about the history of prefabricated construction systems commonly used behind the Iron Curtain.

The first part of the book opens with an introduction to mass housing in the former Soviet Union and its satellites, illustrated with photographs and propaganda posters. The second part contains 164 cardboard panels to press out and build a 27-cm-high 3D block with easy-to-follow instructions. The panels feature detailed illustrations recreating the facades of post-war modernist housing units, which are home to millions of city dwellers to this day, showcasing some elements added by the tenants afterwards, including satellite dishes or graffiti.

zupagrafika.com/panelki

44 pages, Hardcover

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Zupagrafika are David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka, an independent publisher, author, and photography team based in Poznań, Poland, celebrating modernist and brutalist architecture, design and photography in a unique and playful way.