TBILISI: Modern Architecture in the City

After the Rose Revolution, during the presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia experienced a construction boom. New cities were built from scratch, while older ones expanded at lightning speed. Foreign architects and designers were actively invited to take part.

Architect Jürgen Mayer once admitted in an interview that he couldn’t quite understand why his Georgian clients were always in such a hurry.

And indeed — the new government was in a rush: to erase the Soviet past from memory, to grow the national economy, to reduce poverty and corruption, and, of course, to build everything from a clean slate — while still preserving the historical fabric of the cities.

So, what’s the result?

Today, Georgia can rightfully be considered one of the global hubs of contemporary architecture, and Tbilisi — a true open-air museum of 20th-century architectural trends.

Even though the early stages of this transformation were far from smooth, the direction set by Saakashvili continues to shape Georgia’s urban development policy to this day.

In nearly every city, we now see bright, functional Houses of Justice (Russia’s public service centers pale in comparison), and in Tbilisi, a new generation of bold, contemporary architecture continues to rise.