Urbanistyka socmodernistyczna na przykładzie polskich blokowisk z lat 70. I 80. XX wieku
The urbanism of socialist modernism – a case study of polish block housing estates of the 1970’s and the 1980’s

Summary/Abstract: The year 1972 was a turning point in the history of architecture because of the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe housing estate and thus became the symbolic beginning of the end of modernism. At the same time, in Poland, the housing estate called “Za Zelazna Brama” (Behind the Iron Gate) was put in use and became the model example of the socialist modernism and the construction industry and its “housing factories” began their activities on a mass scale. The urbanism of the 1970s and the 1980s, still controversial today because of its functional and aesthetical limitations, recently became an object of fascination reawakened by F. Springer’s books and – on the other hand – an object of critical reflection based on late Polish translations of J. Jacobs and R. Venturi works. The paper analyzes current landscape of block housing estates in terms of their social, technical and functional evaluation in relation to contemporary urban theories, showing some developmental prospects and possible “return of the blocks of flats” and the prefabricated construction industry.

• Details
• Contents