Bus Stop - Rîbnița Kirova

This is the wildest Soviet bus stop and my personal favorite. The composition of white rendered rectangles reminds me of the Russian avant-garde, Cubo-Futurism, and the geometric explorations of Kazimir Malevich and, most of all, the spatial-architectural volumes of El Lissitzky. A flat screen wall stands forward of the structure with a single large portal cut through it and three narrow vertical slots high above, framing a view of the seating bay behind – or, from the waiting person’s point of view, the approaching buses. The forms are cleanly geometric and the render is white throughout with ochre-yellow accents. The seating bay is a long box under a flat slab cantilevered well past its supports, with what look like the ends of precast conduits left protruding along the top edge. Paired circular port-holes are punched through the back wall at either end. Standing clear of it are two further elements: a portal frame carrying a large rectangular opening – perhaps missing the roof, as three more slots are set high in the portal. From the side the frames read as pure geometry. From the bench they frame the approaching buses. Returning a month later, I noticed that someone had been placing hundreds of empty plastic popsicle sticks in one corner.