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I have a lot of appreciation for the Soviet space program (this might be my favorite space story ever [0]) but it never ceases to amaze me how absolutely hideous Soviet architecture was. The concrete buildings are absolutely soulless.

[0] https://arstechnica.com/science/2014/09/the-little-known-sov...

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Brutalist architecture has a charm all of its own :-)

Yes in a few cases it does. The DC subway is my favorite example.

Weird. I've always hated how the Metro stations look. They've always felt like a bad science fiction scene to me.

One of the things that might not be obvious is besides being examples of 1970s concrete brutalism, the waffled arched ceilings in the Metro are meant to evoke the similar waffled ceiling of DC's historic Union Station (which in turn are a reference to ancient Roman architecture). So you can pretend you are living in a world where Rome didn't fall while waiting for a train (not sure if that's better than bad SF).

And was common world wide in the 70s, my hometown (in a “western” country) has lots of it. I wonder if it’s particularly associated with the Soviet Union because it fell by the end of the 80s?

It is called Bauhaus style. And is in fact applied everywhere now but with more glass.

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