Building the state : architecture, politics, and state formation in post-war central Europe / Virag Molnar.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Molnár, Virág Eszter, 1973- author.

Series:

Architext series.

The architext series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture and society--Europe, Central--History--20th century.

Architecture and society.

Architecture--Political aspects--Europe, Central--History--20th century.

Architecture.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (224 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The built environment of former socialist countries is often deemed uniform and drab, an apt reflection of a repressive regime. Building the State peeks behind the grey façade to reveal a colourful struggle over competing meanings of the nation, Europe, modernity and the past in a divided continent. Examining how social change is closely intertwined with transformations of the built environment, this volume focuses on the relationship between architecture and state politics in postwar Central Europe using examples from Hungary and Germany. Built around four case studies, the book traces how architecture was politically mobilized in the service of social change, first in socialist modernization programs and then in the postsocialist transition. Building the State does not only offer a comprehensive survey of the diverse political uses of architecture in postwar Central Europe but is the first book to explore how transformations of the built environment can offer a lens into broader processes of state formation and social change.

Contents:

Building socialism on national traditions: socialist realism and postwar urban reconstruction

Prefabricating modernity: mass housing and its discontents

Questioning modernity: western or vernacular?

The traditional "European city" in the global age: rebuilding post-wall Berlin

Conclusion.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (pages 175-199) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-415-85763-5

1-317-79642-X

1-315-81173-1

1-317-79643-8

9781315811734

OCLC:

868967439