Research Catalog

Title

Postmodern architecture in socialist Poland : transformation, symbolic form and national identity / Florian Urban.

Author

Urban, Florian

Publication

• Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.
• ©2021

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 225 pages : illustrations (black and white); 26 cm.

Summary

"Garish churches, gabled slab blocks, neo-historical tenements - this book is about these and other architectural oddities that one would not expect under an authoritarian socialist regime. It is about the committed individuals that rendered them possible in spite of repressive politics and persistent shortage. It is about a very different background of postmodern architecture, far removed from the debates over Robert Venturi, Philip Johnson or Prince Charles-a context in which postmodernism stood not for world-weary irony, but for individualized resistance against a collectivist dictatorship, a yearning for truth and spiritual values, and a discourse on distinctiveness and national identity. Postmodern Architecture in Socialist Poland argues that this new architecture was more than just a symptom of the beginning political and economic transformation. Rather, it was itself an agent of change. The changing style and priorities in architecture, the most public and expensive of the visual arts, contributed to incremental change beneath what otherwise appeared to be a rigid authoritarian regime. The book analyses the dynamics of this change. It shows that to a large extent postmodern architecture was promoted by dedicated people who took advantage of cracks in the system. These included not only architects but also public servants and priests, acting courageously without explicit support by the rulers, despite tight economic circumstances. Their work did more than just tweak the appearance of the built environment, it changed society in late-socialist Poland and continues to do so today. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in architectural history, postmodernism, and socialist history"--

Series Statement

Architext

Uniform Title

Architext.

Subject

• 1900-1999
• Architecture and society > Poland > History > 20th century
• Architecture, Postmodern > Poland
• Communism and architecture > Poland
• Architecture and society
• Architecture, Postmodern
• Communism and architecture
• Poland

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Architectural debates in late socialist Poland -- Churches, semiotics and patriotism -- Bottom-up village churches -- Postmodern mass housing complexes -- Postmodernism from the spirit of historic conservation : the new old town of Elblag̜ -- The urban context.

Call Number

JQF 21-768

ISBN

• 9780367860721
• 0367860724
• 9780367860738
• 0367860732

LCCN

2020031137

OCLC

1176327059

Author

Urban, Florian, author.

Title

Postmodern architecture in socialist Poland : transformation, symbolic form and national identity / Florian Urban.

Publisher

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.

Copyright Date

©2021

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Architext

Architext.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Other Form:

Online version: Urban, Florian. Postmodern architecture in socialist Poland Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2021 9781003016731 (DLC) 2020031138

Research Call Number

JQF 21-768