ABSTRACT
Collapse of the the Soviet Union in 1991 led to radical changes in societies of former Union Republics as a whole, invariably affecting their construction and architectural sphere. The aim of the current paper is to show how the socio-economical transformations totally changed the usage of building materials in less than ten years, having a strong impact on architectural culture. During the Soviet period, the construction sector was highly standardised and strictly controlled, building materials were limited in variety and often scarce. In the 1990s, the former Union Republics were opened to free-market economy and many common building materials already used around the world for decades finally became available in Eastern Europe. The transformations in usage of building materials are examined in the case of Estonia, one of the most Western-oriented countries of the former USSR, where the changes in the 1990s were especially rapid.
