The Socialist Life of Modern Architecture: Bucharest, 1949-1964 (Architext)

The Socialist Life of Modern Architecture is the first systematic architectural history of Romania under socialism written in English. It examines the mechanisms through which modern architecture was invested with political meaning and, in reverse, how specific architectural solutions came to define the socialist experience. Each of the books three parts traces the historical development of one key aspect of Romanias architectural culture between the years 19491964: Going beyond buildings and architects to consider the use of photography, painting, and novels, as well as narrations of history and the formation of an ethnographic architectural heritage, the author explores how buildings came to participate in the cultural imagination of socialismand became, in fact, a privileged medium of socialism. Part of the growing interest in the significance of Soviet Bloc architecture, this is an important contribution to the fields of architectural history, cultural history, and visual culture. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Acknowledgments Introduction Methodological framework Notes Part 1: The rise of the socialist city Reassessing the capital Systems of planning and control The socialist reconstruction of Bucharest Floreasca and the cvartal, 1954–1959 The apartment building Floreasca and the microraion, c. 1963 Towers in a garden Looking south: the apartment block versus the bourgeois house Looking into the distance: photographing Floreasca Notes Part 2: Type and typification Soviet (and German) origins Early typification in Romania Types, between constancy and variation Type and building technology I: prefabrication Type and building technology II: confluences Elevating types Type and building technology III: a conclusion Notes Part 3: Peasant houses and workers’ apartments Romanian folk architecture Type before typification The village and the city From type to typification: the model village of Dioști The Village Museum after 1948: a socialist repertoire of folk types From sociology to history Obsolescence versus progress Archetypes: building the socialist primitive The modernism of the peasant house Collective creation, collective experience From the peasant house to the worker’s apartment Conclusion: for a unified theory of socialist type Notes Bibliography Archives Selected publications Index Juliana Maxim's book is the first systematic architectural history of Romania under socialism. It examines the mechanisms through which modern Soviet architecture was invested with political meaning and, in reverse, how specific architectural solutions came to define city life and the socialist experience. Each of the book's three parts spans the historical development of one key aspect of Romania's architectural culture during this period: the planning and construction of housing districts in Bucharest the creation and dissemination of a photographic language about architecture the production and management of folklore and tradition in open-air museums of architecture Going beyond buildings and architects to consider media such as photography, painting, novels, narrations of history, and the formation of an ethnographic architectural heritage, the author explores how this nexus of buildings, spaces, imagery, and texts came to constitute a larger cultural imagination of socialism - and, in fact, the very medium of socialism. Part of the growing interest in the significance of Soviet Bloc architecture, this is an important contribution to the fields of architectural history, cultural history, and visual culture This book examines the mechanisms through which modern Soviet architecture was invested with political meaning and, in reverse, how specific architectural solutions came to define city life and the socialist experience. The Rise Of The Socialist City -- Type And Typification -- Peasant Houses And Workers' Apartments Index. Juliana Maxim. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.