The Ambiguous Legacy of Socialist Modernist Architecture in Central and Eastern Europe

ISBN-13: 9781032289274 / Angielski / Twarda / 2023 / 272 str.

Mariusz Sokolowicz; Aleksandra Nowakowska; Blażej Ciarkowski

Opis

This book examines the unique socialist-modernist architecture built in the twentieth century in Central and Eastern Europe as a source of heritage and of existing and potential value for the present and future generations. Due to the historical context in which it was created, such architecture remains ambiguous. On the one hand, the wider public associates it with the legacy of the unpleasant period of the real socialist economic regime. Yet, on the other hand, it is also a manifestation of social modernization and the promotion of a significant proportion of the population.

This book focuses particularly on concrete heritage, a legacy of modernist architecture in Central and Eastern Europe, and it was this material that enabled their rebuilding after World War II and modernization during the following decades. The authors search for the value of modernist architecture and using case studies from Poland, Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia, Lithuania and Slovenia verify to what extent this heritage is embedded in the local socio-economic milieu and becomes a basis for creating new values. They argue that the challenge is to change the ways we think about heritage, from looking at it from the point of view of a single monument to thinking in terms of a place with its own character and identity that builds its relation to history and its embeddedness in the local space. Furthermore, they propose that the preservation of existing concrete structures and adapting them to modern needs is of great importance for sustainability.

With increasing awareness of the issue of preserving post-war architectural heritage and the strategies of dissonant heritage management, this multidisciplinary study will be of interest to architecture historians, conservators, heritage economists, urban planners and architects.

Spis treści

Introduction  1 Modernism, socialism and concrete in CEE countries: A controversial heritage  Modernism in architecture – Universal genesis vs CEE uniqueness  Socialist modernism in architecture as part of the modernization policy in CEE countries  Concrete in post-war architecture: New possibilities for a new society  Soc-modernism architecture after socialism: The problem of dissonant heritage 2 The interdisciplinary character of heritage value  The concept of value in philosophy and economic thought  Value in the theory of monuments  Architectural heritage as an urban common good  Architectural heritage as a territorial capital  Heritage surroundings and its value from the societal and spatial order perspective  3 Towards a methodology of valuating ambiguous heritage  The review of research on valuating soc-modernist architecture  Ambiguous heritage and architecture  The classification of heritage valuation methods Cost-benefit analysis as a response to the complexity of heritage development  Warsaw Ochota railway station, Poland – Valuating soc-modernism in the daily life  4 The protection of ambiguous legacy in CEE countries: Case studies The railway station in Katowice, Poland – From destruction to value discourse   Historical background and evolution of object's functions   Dominant value and impact of the surroundings   Socio-economic embeddedness and local uniqueness   The Buzludzha Monument, Bulgaria – The struggle of soc-modernism heritage with nature and political controversies   Historical background and evolution of object's functions   Dominant value and impact of the surroundings   Socio-economic embeddedness and local uniqueness   Central post office in Skopje – The memory of the socialist reconstruction in the process of oblivion   Historical background and evolution of object's functions   Dominant value and impact of the surroundings   Socio-economic embeddedness and local uniqueness    Palace of concerts and sports in Vilnius, Lithuania – Sports utility vs difficult history and dissonant heritage   Historical background and evolution of object's functions   Dominant value and impact of the surroundings   Socio-economic embeddedness and local uniqueness   Republic Square in Ljubljana, Slovenia – The beginnings of statehood and every day of the capital’s civic life   Historical background and evolution of object's functions   Dominant value and impact of the surroundings    Socio-economic embeddedness and local uniqueness   Summary   References   Index