This Airbnb could easily be a set in Chernobyl

A couple in Vilnius had an idea and furnished their apartment in line with the design of the late Soviet era, inspired by HBO’s very successful Chernobyl series. The owners, Rasa Jusionyte and Linas Marcišauskas came up with the idea when they saw the balcony of the flat inherited from their late grandmother in one of the scenes while watching the series.

Using their own original furnishing as a stepping stone, they transformed the apartment into a miniature time capsule, for which they primarily collected the remaining closets and container units from their family members. Once word has spread about the couple’s project, people started to donate Soviet relics from all over the country, including original newspapers from the Soviet era and gems such as an electronic potato-masher (which won a design award in its era and is still operable) and a marvelous Russian-made Radiotehnika Melodija-103B-Stereo record player, too.

According to the owners, first they didn’t know what to do with the apartment in Vilnius, but when some of their friends saw it, every one of them was amazed by the atmosphere remnant from the Soviet era. They already thought about short term rental when it was published that HBO plans to shoot the Chernobyl series, and designated the capital of Lithuania as the location of the shooting, instead of Pripyat, which is completely abandoned today. The entire concept conceived in their minds when they watched the docuseries (which has, by the way, won an Emmy since.)

Marcišauskas has always been intrigued by Soviet design and object culture, he told in an interview for example that in his childhood, he was looking for unique stuff to decorate his room with in abandoned factory buildings and nuclear shelters. Currently, he and Jusionyte are decorating this apartment using all of their creativity, which they described as an everlasting project. Either way, the unique Soviet apartment house is already advertised on Airbnb.

If you would like to visit the Soviet apartment in Vilnius, which has a perfect review by the way, you can go and book your visit on the site of Airbnb.

Source: The Calvert Journal

• east
• design
• vilnius
• chernobyl