State University of Moldova (UZM)

Set below street level and accessed by a footbridge from Alexei Mateevici Street, the newer building of the State University of Moldova is an elongated S-shaped block with three detached rectangular auditorium volumes placed in staggered diagonal positions in front of it. Bronislav Morgun, Alexandr Cherdantsev, and Leonid Voronin completed it in 1987, connecting it to the existing modernist university building by I. Shmurun and A. Sobolev from 1967. A grid of overlapping rectangular elements in gold-coloured anodised aluminium covers the upper three storeys, functioning less as sun protection than as a visual accent on an otherwise plain facade. The interior is austere by necessity: materials were in short supply during construction, and the design team resorted to the common practice of obtaining approval for minimal finish budgets and then petitioning the USSR State Committee for Construction and Architecture for additional resources as completion approached. The original city development plan called for demolishing the entire area between the university and the Republican Stadium to make room for a major expansion of the campus. Economic stagnation ended those plans, and this building remains the only extension the university complex received. The main entrance to the top floor was subsequently altered and clad in alucobond panels, visually disconnected from the rest of the building.