These colorful kiosks changed the Soviet-era landscape

From the 1970s to the 1990s, mass-produced, modular, modernist kiosks sprouted up across Central and Eastern Europe. Vendors sold goods from these kiosks like food, flowers, and newspapers, but like phone booths, many have gone out of use or vanished over the years. A new book collects images of some of the survivors.

Kiosk: The Last Modernist Booths Across Central and Eastern Europe published by the Polish publisher Zupagrafika features photos of more than 150 kiosks from cities like Berlin and Warsaw. It’s a delightfully specific ode to a lost architectural form—one that gives a unique lens into the history of Eastern Europe.

These kiosks have been around long enough to witness the fall of the Soviet Union and the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe in the late 20th century. For many people, the tiny structures provided an economic lifeline. “Despite their modest dimensions, kiosks played a role much larger than the sum of their physical components,” says urban explorer Maciej Czarnecki, who wrote the book’s foreword. “They were miniatures of public spaces fostering new forms of social and economic interactions.”

The kiosks also offer a look at the region’s design aesthetic of that era. Unlike kiosks in U.S. cities and malls, the European kiosks featured in the book tend to be painted in bright colors like red, yellow, and blue. Models include the K67, a popular kiosk designed by Slovenian architect Saša J. Mächtig, and the Soviet-manufactured helmet-shaped Bathyscaphe. Those that are still in use today prove that their design still holds up, like one in Belgrade that’s a bakery and a newsstand in Poland. Even half a century later, they look retro-futuristic.

The photos were taken by Zupagrafika founders David Navarro and Martyna Sobecka and the book opens with a foreword by urban explorer Maciej Czarnecki and an introduction by architectural historian Anna Cymer.