Postmodern Architecture in Socialist Poland

Transformation, Symbolic Form and National Identity
1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-0-367-86072-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 238 Seiten, Format (B × H): 174 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 454 g

Reihe: Architext

Garish churches, gabled panel blocks, neo-historical tenements—this book is about these and other architectural oddities that emerged in Poland between 1975 and 1989, a period characterised by the decline of the authoritarian socialist regime and waves of political protest. During that period, committed architects defied repressive politics and persistent shortages, and designed houses and churches which adapted eclectic historical forms and geometric volumes, and were based on traditional typologies.

These buildings show a very different background of postmodernism, far removed from the debates over Robert Venturi, Philip Johnson, or Prince Charles in Western Europe and North America—a context in which postmodern architecture stood not for world-weary irony in an economically saturated society, but for individualised counter-propositions to a collectivist ideology, for a yearning for truth and spiritual values, and for a discourse on distinctiveness and national identity.

Postmodern Architecture in Socialist Poland argues that this new architecture marked the beginning of socio-political transformation and at the same time showed postmodernism's reconciliatory potential. In light of massive historical ruptures and wartime destruction, these buildings successfully responded to the contradictory desires for historical continuity and acknowledgment of rupture and loss. Next to international ideas, the architects took up domestic traditions, such as the ideas of the Polish school of historic conservation and long-standing national-patriotic narratives. They thus contributed to the creation of a built environment and intellectual climate that have been influential to date.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars interested in postmodern architecture and urban design, as well as in the socio-cultural background and transformative potential of architecture under socialism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Urban, Florian

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Geschichte der Architektur, Baugeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Architektur: Allgemeines
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technik: Berufe & Ausbildung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction. 1. Architectural Debates in Late Socialist Poland. 2. Churches, Semiotics, and Patriotism. 3. Bottom-Up Village Churches. 4. Postmodern Mass Housing Complexes. 5. Postmodernism from the Spirit of Historic Conservation: The New Old Town of Elblag. 6. The Urban Context. Conclusion. Pronunciation of Polish Names. Index of Buildings. Index of Architects. Index of Subjects.

Über Autor(innen)

Florian Urban is a Professor of Architectural History and Head of History of Architectural and Urban Studies at the Glasgow School of Art. He was born and raised in Munich, Germany, and holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Berlin, an MA in urban planning from UCLA, and a PhD in history and theory of architecture from MIT. He is the author, among others, of Neohistorical East Berlin: Architecture and Urban Design in the German Democratic Republic 1970–1990 (2009), Tower and Slab: Histories of Global Mass Housing (Routledge, 2012), and The New Tenement: Architecture in the Inner City since 1970 (Routledge 2018). In 2018–19 he was a Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw.