Re-Humanizing Architecture: New Forms of Community, 1950-1970 (East West Central: Re-building Europe, 1950-1990 Book 1)

After the Second World War, a divided Europe was much affected by a period of reconstruction. This was influenced by the different political systems – in the socialist East and in the capitalist West, the focus was on cohesion in society and its cultural and architectural expression. In parallel to the rapidly progressing industrialization of the building industry, debates on the humanization of the built environment were led on both sides with great intensity. The volume shows how, on the back of existentialism, new monumentality, and socialist realism, quite similar concepts and strategies were developed in order to find answers to questions relating to adequate structures for new forms of community and identity. Contents 6 Foreword. East West Central: Re-Building Europe 8 Introduction 14 I. Discourses on Humanism 22 Re-Humanizing Architecture: The Search for a Common Ground in the Postwar Years, 1950–1970 24 CIAM: From “Spirit of the Age” to the “Spiritual Needs” of People 44 Was Humanized Socialist Modernism Possible After All? The Promise and Failure of Mass Housing in Hungary 64 Mieczysław Porębski: Man and Architecture in the Iconosphere 86 II. Building New Societies 100 Continuity or Discontinuity? Narratives on Modern Architecture in East and West Germany during the Cold War 102 Building Together: Construction Sites in a Divided Europe During the 1950s 116 Building a New Warsaw, Building a Social Warsaw: The First Reconstruction Plans and Their International Review 130 Building a New Community – A Comparison Between the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia 146 “Social Efficiency” and “Humanistic Specificity”: A Double Discourse in Romanian Architecture in the 1960s 174 Sociological and Environmental- Psychology Research in Estonia during the 1960s and 1970s: A Critique of Soviet Mass-Housing 186 III. The Urban Context 198 Bogdan Bogdanović and the Search for a Meaningful City 200 From “New Units of Settlement” to the Old Arbat: The Soviet NĖR Group’s Search for Spaces of Community 212 Theories and Practices of Re-Humanizing Postwar Italian Architecture: Ernesto Nathan Rogers and Giancarlo De Carlo 230 Urban Planning and Christian Humanism: The Institut Supérieur d’Urbanisme Appliqué in Brussels under Gaston Bardet 244 The Monumentality of the Matchbox: On “Slabs” and Politics in the Cold War 256 Between City and University: New Monumentality in the Student Center of the Campus of Coimbra 284 IV. The Inhabited Nature 296 Socialist Pastoral: The Role of Folklore in Socialist Architectural Culture, 1950s and 1960s 298 Dwelling in the Middle Landscape: Rethinking the Architecture of Rural Communities at CIAM 10 312 A Desire for Innocence? Community and Recreational Architecture around Lake Balaton 326 Unexpected Side Effects: Indirect Benefits of International Mass Tourism on Croatia’s Adriatic Coast 340 Appendix 362 Notes on Contributors 364 Index 372

Das geteilte Europa war nach dem Ende des zweiten Weltkriegs durch die Phase des Wiederaufbaus geprägt. Diese wurde durch die unterschiedlichen politischen Systeme beeinflusst: im sozialistischen Osten wie auch im kapitalistischen Westen ging es um den Zusammenhalt der Gesellschaft sowie um deren kulturellen und baulichen Ausdruck. Parallel zur schnell einsetzenden Industrialisierung des Bauwesens wurden auf beiden Seiten intensive Debatten über die Humanisierung der gebauten Umwelt geführt. Der Band zeigt, wie vor dem Hintergrund von Existentialismus, New Monumentality und sozialistischem Realismus durchaus ähnliche Konzepte und Strategien entwickelt wurden, um Antworten auf die Frage nach adäquaten Strukturen für neue Formen von Gemeinschaft und Identität zu geben.

The international authors of this three-volume work show Europe's post-war architecture in a new light. In spite of geo-political divisions and national differences, the developments in East and West are seen in context for the first time - a mutual perception, the transfer of knowledge, and cooperation, opened avenues across boundaries. Each volume is dedicated to a leading subject and its unfolding across overlapping periods of time Between 1960 and 1980, both eastern and western Europe experienced a construction boom of hitherto unknown dimensions. However, the onset of recession, social changes, and environmental problems promoted criticism of the then contemporary concepts of modernity beyond political boundaries.