Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1960
by Kimberly Elman Zarecor
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011 eISBN: 978-0-8229-7780-3 | Cloth: 978-0-8229-4404-1 Library of Congress Classification NA7412.C9Z37 2011 Dewey Decimal Classification 720.943709045
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Eastern European prefabricated housing blocks are often vilified as the visible manifestations of everything that was wrong with state socialism. For many inside and outside the region, the uniformity of these buildings became symbols of the dullness and drudgery of everyday life. Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity complicates this common perception. Analyzing the cultural, intellectual, and professional debates surrounding the construction of mass housing in early postwar Czechoslovakia, Zarecor shows that these housing blocks served an essential function in the planned economy and reflected an interwar aesthetic, derived from constructivism and functionalism, that carried forward into the 1950s.
With a focus on prefabricated and standardized housing built from 1945 to 1960, Zarecor offers broad and innovative insights into the country’s transition from capitalism to state socialism. She demonstrates that during this shift, architects and engineers consistently strove to meet the needs of Czechs and Slovaks despite challenging economic conditions, a lack of material resources, and manufacturing and technological limitations. In the process, architects were asked to put aside their individual creative aspirations and transform themselves into technicians and industrial producers. Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity is the first comprehensive history of architectural practice and the emergence of prefabricated housing in the Eastern Bloc. Through discussions of individual architects and projects, as well as building typologies, professional associations, and institutional organization, it opens a rare window into the cultural and economic life of Eastern Europe during the early postwar period.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Kimberly Elman Zarecor is assistant professor of architecture at Iowa State University.
REVIEWS
"Zarecor offers broad and innovative insights into the country’s transition from capitalism to state socialism. . . . Through discussions of individual architects and projects, as well as building typologies, professional associations, and institutional organization, it open a rare window into the cultural and economic life of Eastern Europe during the early postwar period.” —Eurotexture
“From postwar modernist model housing developments in Kladno, Most, and Ostrava to the first panelák at Gottwaldov, Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity explains in vivid detail and lucid prose how architecture and politics worked together—for better or for worse—to define Czechoslovakia's urban landscape in the Communist era.”
—Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Michigan State University
“After World War II, all Czech architectural offices and building firms merged into a unified state apparatus, extending earlier experiments by Europe’s most advanced architectural functionalists. This endeavor would later clash with the discourse of socialist realism imposed under the Soviets. Zarecor masterfully reconstructs the intense conflicts among architects caught between modern technology and nostalgic aesthetics as reflected in their designs and theoretical discourse.”
—Jean-Louis Cohen, New York University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Writing a Postwar History
1. Phoenix Rising: Housing and the Early Debates on Socialist Modernity
2. Typification and Standardization: Stavoprojekt and the Transformation of Architectural Practice
3. National in Form, Socialist in Content: Sorela and Architectural Imagery
4. A Vision of Socialist Architecture: The Late Career of Jirí Kroha
5. The Industrialization of Housing: Zlín and the Evolution of the Panelák
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1960
by Kimberly Elman Zarecor
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011 eISBN: 978-0-8229-7780-3 Cloth: 978-0-8229-4404-1
Eastern European prefabricated housing blocks are often vilified as the visible manifestations of everything that was wrong with state socialism. For many inside and outside the region, the uniformity of these buildings became symbols of the dullness and drudgery of everyday life. Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity complicates this common perception. Analyzing the cultural, intellectual, and professional debates surrounding the construction of mass housing in early postwar Czechoslovakia, Zarecor shows that these housing blocks served an essential function in the planned economy and reflected an interwar aesthetic, derived from constructivism and functionalism, that carried forward into the 1950s.
With a focus on prefabricated and standardized housing built from 1945 to 1960, Zarecor offers broad and innovative insights into the country’s transition from capitalism to state socialism. She demonstrates that during this shift, architects and engineers consistently strove to meet the needs of Czechs and Slovaks despite challenging economic conditions, a lack of material resources, and manufacturing and technological limitations. In the process, architects were asked to put aside their individual creative aspirations and transform themselves into technicians and industrial producers. Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity is the first comprehensive history of architectural practice and the emergence of prefabricated housing in the Eastern Bloc. Through discussions of individual architects and projects, as well as building typologies, professional associations, and institutional organization, it opens a rare window into the cultural and economic life of Eastern Europe during the early postwar period.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Kimberly Elman Zarecor is assistant professor of architecture at Iowa State University.
REVIEWS
"Zarecor offers broad and innovative insights into the country’s transition from capitalism to state socialism. . . . Through discussions of individual architects and projects, as well as building typologies, professional associations, and institutional organization, it open a rare window into the cultural and economic life of Eastern Europe during the early postwar period.” —Eurotexture
“From postwar modernist model housing developments in Kladno, Most, and Ostrava to the first panelák at Gottwaldov, Manufacturing a Socialist Modernity explains in vivid detail and lucid prose how architecture and politics worked together—for better or for worse—to define Czechoslovakia's urban landscape in the Communist era.”
—Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Michigan State University
“After World War II, all Czech architectural offices and building firms merged into a unified state apparatus, extending earlier experiments by Europe’s most advanced architectural functionalists. This endeavor would later clash with the discourse of socialist realism imposed under the Soviets. Zarecor masterfully reconstructs the intense conflicts among architects caught between modern technology and nostalgic aesthetics as reflected in their designs and theoretical discourse.”
—Jean-Louis Cohen, New York University
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Writing a Postwar History
1. Phoenix Rising: Housing and the Early Debates on Socialist Modernity
2. Typification and Standardization: Stavoprojekt and the Transformation of Architectural Practice
3. National in Form, Socialist in Content: Sorela and Architectural Imagery
4. A Vision of Socialist Architecture: The Late Career of Jirí Kroha
5. The Industrialization of Housing: Zlín and the Evolution of the Panelák
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Illustration Credits
Index
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE