Druzhba Sanitarium

It looks like a huge planetary gearset from the sky but when it was built in 1985 Turkish spies thought it was another dangerous military object built to support the Cold War effort. Druzhba was designed by a russian architect, Igor Vasilievsky with the help of Nodar Kancheli. Kancheli is more of a mathematician than a building engineer and that’s why he’s come up with some really amazing structures.

he structure of Druzhba was a challenge. After a careful ground inspection three huge concrete towers were planted in the shoreline. This part of the world has a very solid cliff on the shoreline, so the building is actually very safe.

wo enormous concrete cylinders (76 metres in diameter) were then seated on ledges protruding from the towers. The upper two floors laid out in three additional roundhouses are sitting on top of the upper cylinder. So in effect the whole 6-storey mammoth is propped by only three ledges. 

ith Druzhba, however, the towers aren’t there for support only – they are hollow with lifts and a stair-case inside each. What this achieves is a very convenient access to the rooms.