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WorkGraphic Design

Blokoshka: Build your own playful Eastern Bloc modernist architecture

If you appreciate a little modernist architecture, then check out these build-it-yourself kits by Poland creative studio Zupagrafika. Inspired by the post-war landscape of eastern European cities, each kit contains four sheets of recycled cardboard that you can easily assemble, without scissors or glue, to create miniature matryoshka buildings that fit inside one another when complete.

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Four nested cardboard buildings in red, grey, yellow and turquoise from Blokoshka, arranged in size order on pavement with Soviet-era apartment blocks blurred in background

Entitled Blokoshka, it's a playful exploration of the prefabricated housing that sprung up quickly and affordably following World War II when governments were in desperate need of providing suitable homes for their populations. This series pays homage to the "sleeping districts" of Moscow, the plattenbau constructions of East Berlin, the Warsaw Ghetto estates and the panelák blocks in Prague – all areas of Europe that enjoyed extensive modernist architecture and shaped the post-war continent's urban landscape.

Founded in 2012 by David Navarro, Zupagrafika is a Hispano-Polish creative design studio based in Poznań. Describing themselves as an agency that enjoys a special bond with architecture, typography and paper – they have created many other paper cut-outs inspired by modernist architecture, including a set that celebrates London's own Brutalist estates.

To get your hands on Blokoshka, then you can purchase your own kit via Zupagrafika's online shop.

Hands holding a Blokoshka box displaying four colourful cardboard building models representing modernist housing from Moscow, East Berlin, Warsaw and Prague
Blokoshka packaging showing assembly instructions above and a red cardboard die-cut sheet below with perforated building silhouettes ready to fold and assemble
Four unfolded cardboard sheets in grey, red, yellow and turquoise showing die-cut modernist building designs and assembly instructions for Blokoshka kits by Zupagrafika
Line drawings showing five cardboard Blokoshka building kits in increasing complexity, from a simple cube to nested matryoshka-style modernist blocks that fit inside one another
Hand holding a partially assembled white cardboard Blokoshka building model with another model visible in the background, demonstrating the nesting matryoshka design
Hand holding one of two red cardboard Blokoshka building kits, each with a pyramid-shaped roof and grid of windows, designed to nest inside one another
Hands holding an unfolded yellow cardboard Blokoshka sheet, surrounded by assembled red, white and grey miniature modernist building models
Blokoshka cardboard building kit showing a stacked grey upper section and bright red lower section, representing Eastern Bloc modernist architecture
A hand places a miniature cardboard building block on top of another, with a red Blokoshka building visible in the background
Cardboard Blokoshka building model showing a six-storey Eastern Bloc apartment block with gridded windows in various colours and a small pink graffiti tag on the corner
Hand holding a small turquoise cardboard building model with blurred coloured tower blocks in the background, from Zupagrafika's Blokoshka series
Four cardboard Blokoshka building kits in white, red and yellow that nest together, showing the assembled miniature modernist apartment blocks inspired by Eastern European architecture
Hand placing a miniature cardboard building block into a stack of Blokoshka matryoshka buildings in red, grey and yellow, with larger modernist apartment blocks beside them
Close-up of white cardboard sheets with die-cut architectural building patterns that interlock to form Blokoshka's miniature Eastern Bloc modernist structures
Colourful cardboard building models in red, white, yellow and blue arranged together to show the nesting matryoshka design of Zupagrafika's Blokoshka architecture kit
Blokoshka packaging showing the title and subtitle "Modernist Architectural Matryoshka" with a red cardboard building component visible below
Bright red cardboard building model with a grid of white window frames arranged in neat rows, part of the Blokoshka architectural kit by Zupagrafika
Overlapping cardboard sheets with red, blue and yellow outlines showing the flat components of Blokoshka building kits ready to be assembled
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