Architecture

In autumn 1920, the Red Army exiled Emir of Bukhara Said Alimkhan from his old residence. After that, he had settled in Dushanbe. Very soon, civil war covered all surroundings and lasted until 1925. By the end of the civil war, Dushanbe consisted of 40 houses and 283 inhabitants.

In 1925, the first hostel and school were constructed in Dushanbe. The absence of local constructional materials complicated city's growth and development. Since 1929, after construction of the railway from Termez to Dushanbe, a lot of wagons with wood, stone and cement started to be delivered to Dushanbe. Many famous architects from Moscow (P. Vaulin, S, Kutin and others) came to assist to local town-planners to build Dushanbe city.

A lack of exploration of local environment, high seismic activity and complexity of soils essentially aggravated the construction of roads and buildings.

Since 1930-th, Dushanbe city has begun to increase. The first heat power plant was constructed. The union of architects was established. The first many-storied houses were built. In 1937, in Dushanbe 73 houses out of 4295 were two-storied, and 2 three-storied. The average cubic capacity was 385 m3.

The first buildings are traced with the Empire Style, brought from Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 1939, the Theatre of opera and ballet, Vaksh Hotel and other three-storied architectural buildings were established. Under the youth initiative, the Komsomolskoe Lake and Frunze Stadium were built up.

In 1940, construction of the House of Government and main city square was initiated. In spite of deficiency of decorative tiles and lack of facing workers, architects decided to apply simple forms of constructions.

During the WWII, the rate of Dushanbe's growth was very slow. However, in connection with re-deployment of basic industries during WWII, there were established few essential enterprises: cement plant, textile plant, motorcar repair services and food plants.

Since 1950-s, the rate of house building has begun to increase significantly. A lot of office blocks, houses, hospitals, schools and kindergartens were constructed.

Within 1950-1960-s, many buildings were still based on the Empire Style, including columns, arches, fingerplates, ornamental pattern and modeling (Firdavsi Library, National Bank, City Hall, National Museum, Tajik Polytechnical Institute).

Gradually, architects start to show their interest in ancient traditions. Teahouse Farogat, Orient manuscript library stock under Academy of Science, Sadbarg trade and craft building center are good examples of that style. The cover to the walls of those buildings made of lattice panels to prevent direct sunlight and ensure convenient ventilation.

Early in 1960-th, the microrayons consisted of four-storied standard houses firstly appeared. In 1968, there were constructed 4 eight-storied houses (N. Karabaev street) and in 1976 first nine-storied reinforced concrete house.

During 1970-s, Trade Union Palace, Vakhdat Palace, Hotel "Tajikistan" were constructed.

During 1980-s, Borbad Cinema Hall, State Research Center "Nature" (recently Main Administration on geodesy and mapping under the Government of Tajikistan), teahouse "Saodat", Hotel "Avesto" were built.

According to the previous city plans (1980-90-s), expressive architectural look of the city should be based on the composition of many-storied residential buildings: two-storied - 2%, four and five-storied - 51%, six and nine-storied - 40%, 12-16-storied - 7% of house-building volume. But recent composition of houses is somewhat different: one-storied residential houses - about 1800, 2-4-storied houses - 1320, 5-9-storied houses - 542, above 9 stores - 42 houses.

Use of different compositions of multi-storied houses, applying of various architectural approaches coupled with the form of landscape has contributed highly to the modern look of Dushanbe city.

Nowadays, the number of architectural monuments and buildings in Dushanbe is above 60, and most of them constructed in 1930-1990-s. In general, the state of the architectural monuments and historical buildings is good, besides the City Administration is regularly conducting maintenance and reconstruction.

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