The pipes of Tbilisi's Rike Park, whose demolition began in Georgia this August, were controversial, expensive, unfinished, politically charged — but they were symbolic, writes Arnold Rutto,
News ERR reports.
Anyone who has ever visited Tbilisi could not pass by the futuristic pipes of Rike Park without noticing them. Those two giant metal tunnels, designed by Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, stood right next to the Bridge of Peace as the boldest and most distinctive symbol of contemporary architecture in Tbilisi.
The building, which was once supposed to become a concert hall and exhibition space, was left unfinished due to political changes and stood closed for years. Now, in August, demolition has begun, with completion planned for December 2026.
This act erases from Tbilisi's cityscape a trace of a specific era — President Mikheil Saakashvili's modernization period, when Georgia moved clearly and confidently toward a European direction.
Although that innovative period did not pass without painful setbacks — including the 2008 war, the loss of the Kodori Gorge to Abkhazia, and the loss of control over other disputed territories — it was still a time when the country sought to define itself as part of the European cultural sphere.
The Rike Park music and exhibition center was built as part of Saakashvili's modernization program. During construction, the project was estimated to cost around 40 million euros, and the Georgian state spent about 75 million lari of public money on it, which corresponds to roughly 25 million euros at today's exchange rate. The building was never opened and remained empty after the 2012 change of government.
The Fuksas architecture was neither accidental nor neutral. Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas's work is visible in many European cities and beyond — for example, the Lyon Confluence residential complex in France, New Rome /EUR convention centre and hotel the Cloud in Italy, Vienna's Twin Tower, modern shopping centers in Turin, and the Shenzhen Bao'an Airport terminal 3 built through international cooperation.
All these buildings carry the same idea: openness, forward‑looking boldness, the aesthetics of European modernism. The Rike Park pipes fit into this logic. They were Tbilisi's attempt to step into the same architectural class as Europe's major cities. That is precisely why their demolition is a memory‑political decision.
After the change of government, the building was essentially frozen. Georgia's current political course differs significantly from Saakashvili's Euro‑Atlantic vision, and critics argue that the country has moved away from its earlier clearly pro‑European direction. Against this backdrop, the demolition of the Rike Park pipes becomes a symbolic act: something is being removed from the cityscape that reminds people of a time when Georgia chose a European path.
