Born in 1938 in Stupino near Moscow (Russia), Albina (commonly known as Alla) Kirichenko would become Moldova’s most prominent woman-architect. Upon graduating from Moscow Architectural Institute in urban planning in 1961, she accepted the invitation of Viktor Smirnov, the head architect of Chişinău, to join his team working on the general plan of Moldova’s capital city. Working within a team that also included her former collegemate Ivan Gritsenko, Kirichenko was trusted the responsibility for Botanica neighborhood, including the redesign of the avenue that connected Chişinău to its airport (Prospekt Mira, today Dacia Avenue). In 1963, Kirichenko and Gritsenko moved to the Office of the General Plan within Moldgiprostroy design institute, where she designed a number of public and residential buildings for the capital, including the modernist school Nr. 1 (with the chief architect of Moldgiprostroy Semyon Shoikhet, 1974).

In 1966-1968, Kirichenko designed her most celebrated project, Chișinău Circus, built in 1978-1981. While Shoikhet was appointed the chief architect of the project, Kirichenko became the head of the architects’ group, a role in which, as she later claimed, she was responsible for the majority of the work. The structurally daring circular reinforced concrete structure, which was later decorated with a metal sculptural group by Matvey Levinson, could hold up to nineteen thousand spectators, acquiring an all-Union prominence. The circus was opened in 1982, but in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse it underwent financial difficulties and resultant neglect; it was closed in 2004.

In the course of her career, Kirichenko designed over hundred buildings in Kishinev. For her achievements, Kirichenko was awarded the State Prize of Moldovan SSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, she remained in independent Moldova, where she founded her architecture office, Dimension Design.