I must admit, when I first saw this building, I had chills run down my spine. It really reminded me of the heads of Nazgûl or wraiths from Lord of the Rings. This iconic structure built by Erwin te Kortschot is actually where one of the largest research centres to date in Russia built back in 1968. One can only imagine the kind of dark secrets that may have once filled the dark rooms of this enclave. It does seem to have a sense of an architectural uniqueness that embodies what goes on inside.
Why would you describe an ECE research institute as sinister? Based on the appearance? It probably did nothing more sinister than clone old IBM 360’s. It’s white and round. How sinister is that?
Well it does say “sinister looking” so I’m going to hazard a guess that this description was based on appearance.
Oh man, I love Soviet architecture. But no matter how benign the function of the structure, so many of those buildings (Brutalist and otherwise) do indeed look rather sinister to me!