A mediated tour of the project, which focuses on modernist architecture and the various ways of inhabiting standardised housing in Moscow and Hanoi.
Moscow—Hanoi. Landscapes of Optimism. Mediated Tour
- Date:
- 21 May–
20 Sep 2026
- Age restrictions
- 12+
English-language mediated tours of
To learn more about group tours or to request one, please email* us at mediationcalls@v-a-c.org.
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The Thaw era significantly changed the face of Soviet cities—standardised panel blocks appeared across the Soviet Union, designed to solve the post-war housing crisis. They remain an important feature of the urban landscape to this day, despite provoking mixed reactions.
Opening of Eric Leroux’s solo exhibition at Salon Natasha, 1994
The concept of such buildings spread beyond the Soviet republics to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In Vietnam, equivalents of Soviet micro-districts emerged with the standardised KTT housing blocks (known as Khu Tập Thể, or “collective housing quarters” in Vietnamese).
During the tour, we will discuss the phenomenon of mass housing in Moscow and Hanoi as part of the socialist project, as well as the concept of adhocism (from the Latin ad hoc, meaning “for this specific purpose”), which aims to transform everyday reality using the immediate context and whatever materials are at hand.
How does mass housing reflect the individual character or lifestyle of a society? How were the original utopian mass housing projects—landscapes of optimism—created and transformed in the USSR and Vietnam? What role do large-scale state projects play in intercultural dialogue, and what is the place of the private lives of diasporas? To discuss these themes, we will turn to works by contemporary artists, archival materials, and the architecture of the exhibition, which reproduces the layout of Moscow and Hanoi flats superimposed on each other at a 1:1 scale.
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