Chakhava, Giorgi

გიორგი ჩახავა

* 14.05.1923 Tbilisi, Georgia

† 25.08.2007 Tbilisi

Architect

Giorgi (Gogi) Chakhava became a student at the Rostov Military Pilot School in 1941 and went to World War II. After demobilisation he started to study architecture. In 1949 he graduated from the Georgian Polytechnic Institute, majoring in Architecture. In 1949 he started working as a junior architect in “TbilQalaqProekti“. From 1951 he worked as a senior architect for “SoyuzDorProekti” Tbilisi bureau, as a leader of the brigade, leading specialist and the head of department of civil and Industrial buildings.

From 1966 to 1968 he was a senior architect at “GUShosDor”; in 1968-1981 the deputy minister of Ministry of Road Construction of Georgia; in 1981-1989 senior architect at the Ministry of Construction of Georgian SSR. He founded his own architectural office in 1992 and was the chairman of the Association of Georgian Engineers. From 2005 he was a member of the Specialized Council of the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia.

Giorgi Chakhava was an Honoured architect of Georgia, laureate of the Prize of the Council of Ministers of Soviet Union (1983); an honourable member of Eastern Countries International Academy of Architecture (1992); a laureate of many awards of the Georgian Union of Architects as well as the Soviet Union; member of the Board of the Georgian Union of Architects.

Photos: Giorgi Chakhava personal Archive, The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia

Main Projects

– Residential house, Kostava 76, Tbilisi 1955

– Residential house, Kurdiani 16, Tbilisi 1955

– Building of “Soyuzdorproekt”, Saakadze sq. Tbilisi 1956 (Alexandre Valabuev, Giorgi Chakhava)

– Eastern Bus Station, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 1956

– Bus Station “Samarkand”, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 1964 (Giorgi Chakhava, Irakli Maskharashvili, Dodo Sekhniasvili)

– A four floor multi-apartment house with pre-fabricated Block Rooms, Saburtalo micro-district, Tbilisi 1959

– Salang Tunnel Portals and Summer Hunting House for King Zahir Shah of Afghanistan, Hindukush Mountains, Afghanistan, 1963-1964 (Giorgi Chakhava, Irakli Maskharashvili, Otar Nakhutsrishvili, Dodo Sekhniashvili)

– Bus Station, Alushta, Crimea, Ukraine 1960-1965 (Giorgi Chakhava, L. Gudiashvili. Civil engineer: Niokolai Linevich)

Bus Station, Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine 1962-1964 (Giorgi Chakhava, Otar Nakhutsrishvili, Zurab Jalaghania, Dodo Sekhniashvili. Civil engineer: Nikolai Linevich)

Colchian Joint, “Building Element” – various projects. Bus stop pavilions etc.. 1968

The Ministry of Road Construction, Tbilisi 1969-1975 (Giorgi Chakhava, Zurab Jalaghania. Civil engineers: Teimuraz Tkhilava, Alexander Kimberg)

Shell structure biomorphic pavilions, Abkhasia, Georgia 1972-1985 (Giorgi Chakhava, Zurab Jalaghania. Artists: Nodar Malazonia, Zurab Kapanadze, Zurab Lezhava)

– Café “Fantasia”, Batumi 1980

– Panorama viewing platform “Diorama”, Gudauri, Military road of Georgia 1983

– Various projects for road and transportation infrastructure, auto-pavilions and other public buildings along the main roads of Georgia

Publications

– Chakhava G., Residential Houses of Block-Rooms in Georgia. Residential Housing construction. 1961. №8. P. 9–12: ill. (rus.)

– Chakhava, G., Experience of Designing and Constructing Buildings of Block-Rooms in Tbilisi. Residential Housing from Volumetric Elements. Gosstroyizdat, 1961 (rus.)

– Chakhava G., Tower-based Houses. Architektura SSR, 1974. №12. P. 60: ill. (rus.)

– Chakhava, G., Universal Building Elements used by The Ministry of Road Construction of the Georgian SSR. Technical Information. Construction and Architecture. Gosstroy GSSR. 1975 №16 (rus.)

– Chakhava, G. The Capabilities of a Terrain. Newspaper “Literaturuli sakartvelo”, №32. 10.08.1979 (geo.)

– Chakhava G., “The More Complex Terrain …” Decorativnoe Iskusstvo”. №10 (359), Moscow, Sovietski khudojnik, 1987 (rus.)

– Chakhava, G., Relief of Georgia and it’s possibilities, Architektura SSR, 1975.10.2 (rus.)

Literature/Links

Davitaia, Vakhtang. A Letter “When Silence causes Damage”, 09.1979, in: “Architecture, Dream and Reality”, Vol.1, Tbilisi 2010 (geo.)

Chichua, Tinatin. Interview: G. Chakhava. Creative Laboratory, Architektura SSR. 1986. №3. P. 54-67 (rus.)

Warsza, Joanna. Ministry of Highways. A Guide to the Performative Architecture of Tbilisi, Warschau/Utrecht/Berlin 2013

Novikov, Felix. Behind the Iron Curtain. Confession of Soviet Architect. Dom Publishers, Berlin 2016