By Lucy Papachristou
TBILISI, Aug 27 (Reuters) – The demolition of a modernist arts complex in the Georgian capital Tbilisi has ignited outrage from some residents about the future of the city’s skyline and from the Italian architects who designed it.
Known locally as the Rike Tubes, the Rike Park Music Theatre and Exhibition Hall was constructed between 2011 and 2012 under the previous government, led by pro-Western reformer Mikheil Saakashvili.
The governing Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012 and the complex was never fully completed and has gone largely unused.
Its tubular design has stood out in the old town skyline dominated by the conical roofs of Orthodox churches and 19th-century houses, making it a symbol of the pro-European approach of the previous government, while its disuse for some represented squandered opportunities.
“This ugliness does not befit our beautiful capital,” Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said in May this year.
MONTHS OF DEMOLITION WORK
In June, the Tbilisi City Hall’s Architecture Service approved the demolition. The work began at the end of July and is scheduled to be completed by December 25, a city document shows.
Among local people who never liked the design, Elene Tsetskhladze nevertheless objected to its destruction.
“Personally, I don’t like the way it looks visually, but I think that at this point, the state’s priority should be construction, not destruction,” she said. The money spent on demolition could be better used for free meals for schoolchildren and medicine for the poor, she added.
While they still can, tourists have flocked to snap photos of the 10,000-square-metre (12,000-square-yard) structure.
It was designed by the Italian architectural firm Fuksas Studio, led by husband and wife architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, who said they had received a deluge of support.
“We received thousands of emails. Every person said this was the most iconic building of Tbilisi,” said Massimiliano.
The government had not told them the demolition was imminent and they are struggling to come to terms with it.
“You cannot cancel buildings, you cannot cancel memories,” Massimiliano said. Doriana added: “You cannot cancel history.”
Maqro Property, the parent company of Rike Dom, the company that owns the complex and requested its demolition, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Barbara Lewis)
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