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Session description
The Post-Socialist City. Continuity and Change in Urban Space and Imagery
Abstract:
City planning under socialism cannot be envisaged without an ideological purport. Socialist ideas and concepts influenced the city planning and found their realisation in buildings, street ensembles and squares, in films, literature and the visual arts. This heritage lives on in the post-socialist city even after the collapse of the previous political system. In the last decade, representative buildings from the socialist period have lost their political implications. Many of them disappeared, others were being recodified and acquired new functions. As a result of this process, new concepts of urban space emerged, reflecting the political changes that occurred at the same time.
The Eastern European cities and the lives of their inhabitants are still dominated by large industrial complexes and panel buildings. More recently, the same space has provided impulses for a new artistic definition of urbanity in literature, film and the visual arts. Large parts of the socialist city persisted through the changes but have come to perform new roles. But the shaping of the post-socialist city with its symbols, images and metaphors could not do away with all references to the socialist city and its imaginary.
It is legitimate to ask whether the ideological implementation of the city under socialism is removed in the post-socialist time with its programmatic lack of ideology. Undoubtedly, the new functions of public space such as consumption and entertainment, determined by concerns for economic efficiency, supplanted older models of socialist buildings with their political meanings. With reference to a wide spectrum of examples, this panel proposes to discuss the transformations from the socialist to the post-socialist city. While considering the differences between the individual examples of city planning, we would like to ask if there are any traits of emerging post-socialist cities that are typical, both in their architectural reality or their spatial concepts, and with regard to the underlying imagination of urbanity. Contributions from all disciplines are invited to pursue these questions.
Session conveners:
- Alfrun Kliems
- Marina Dmitrieva
Session type: Specialist Session
Classification: M - Modern
Communications
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