ARCHITECTURE, URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING OF THE 1980-S.
11-12 of October • National Art Museum of Ukraine and State Scientific Library of Architecture and Construction
Modernist architecture was partially superseded by post-modernism before Socialism was over. Ideological control loosened and new thinking about the city found its realization in the physical world. Intellectual and aesthetic divorce with Modernism happened as a continuation of the critique of prefabricated housing estates and absence of authorship in the projects and also as an anticipation of the society to come after the Perestroyka of USSR/Socialist countries.
Historical city, common spaces, human scale, pedestrian priority, new and re-appropriated materialities found their way into a palette of the late socialist architectural practice. Looking for self-realization, architects did not bind themselves to the outdated prescriptions of high Modernism. What were the options available in the hierarchical state construction system, and how were they exploited? How did international context influence the development and what were the inner conditions allowing the new aesthetics and approaches?
Today these projects are often overlooked and still misunderstood. In Ukraine and in other states in the region researchers struggle to retrieve theoretical background, archival information and authorship of these buildings. It is hard to re-evaluate their significance as the window of opportunity was swiftly closed and official critique was not ready to react to such developments. To address these issues and gain a wider look as well as to situate the discussion within the international context we are organizing a conference joined with a public research project “After Socialist Modernism. Design, Architecture and Urban planning of the 1980-s” of the National Art Museum of Ukraine.
Building upon the latest contributions from widely acknowledged authors and newly arisen interest to the topic we look forward to opening Ukraine as an equally valuable region of research. This is a demanding task, and we are expecting to combine both the renewed discourses on postcolonial research in postmodern architecture and original archival inquiries in order to produce a more coherent understanding of the period.
Cross-cutting topics
- Localization of the Ukrainian projects within the wider context of the late Eastern Block urbanism
- Evolving social and cultural context of late socialism as a background of new architectural approaches
- Assessment of the value and significance of (post-/anti-)modernist socialist architectural theory and practices
- Strategies and principles of conservation/reconstruction
- Impact, representation and publicity of central urban projects of 1980-s in the contemporary city
Archive
October, 11th
Opening and introductory lecture to the conference After Socialist Modernism
Oleksandr Anisimov
Oksana Barshynova
Eglė Juocevičiūtė
Borys Medvedev
NAMU
Architecture as a process. Discussion about the practice after socialist modernism with architects
Volodymyr Shevchenko
Anton Oliynyk
Dmytro Antoniuk
NAMU
Globalizing the socialist architecture. New perspectives
Lucasz Stanek
NAMU
October, 12th
Session 1: Situating 1980-s: urban planning and architecture
Natalia Otrishchenko
Dimitrij Zadorin
Michał Wiśniewski
Svitlana Shlipchenko
DNABB
Session 2: Late socialist architecture as a vehicle of post-colonial resistance
Martynas Mankus
Alicja Gzowska
Marija Dremaite
DNABB
Session 3: Post-?. Regional, historic and symbolic transformations of Socialist modernism
Kirsten Angemann
Yehor Vlasenko
Brent Ryan
Sofia Dyak
Florian Urban
Natalia Otrishchenko
DNABB
Public roundtable discussion: Finding place for time: 1980s in Ukrainian architecture for 2021. Intergenerational dialogue
Eglė Juocevičiūtė
Oksana Barshynova
Svitlana Shlipchenko
Natalia Otrishchenko
Oleksandr Anisimov
DNABB
Speakers
kirsten.angermann@uni-weimar.de
Dipl.-Ing, Research and Teaching Assistant of the Chair for Conservation and History of Architecture in Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Berlin, Germany
Context and continuity. Shifting paradigms in East German urban planning and architecture in the city of Halle
go.oleksandr.anisimov@gmail.com
MSc in Urban Studies, researcher and program manager in the NGO "Understanding Soviet Podil". Kyiv, Ukraine
4Blocks in Podil: Kyiv’s Response to the Crisis of Modernist Planning
bdr@mit.edu
Associate Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy Head, City Design and Development Group. Massachusets, USA
Late Soviet megaprojects and contemporary Ukrainian historiography: the case of Kyiv’s 1500-th anniversary
marija.dremaite@gmail.com
PhD in History of Architecture, Professor at Faculty of History in Vilnius University. Vilnius, Lithuania
Reclaiming Identity: The Postmodern Turn in the Vilnius Architecture of the 1980s
s.dyak@lvivcenter.org
PhD, director of Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. Lviv, Ukraine
The Past that Became the Future or How the Historic Center Inspired a Mass Housing Project in a Soviet City
agzowska@mnw.art.pl / alicja.gzowska@gmail.com
Master of Arts, lecturer, adiunkt in National Museum in Warsaw. Warsaw, Poland
Strzeszyn district in Poznań: an experimental model of local democracy before 1989
Chief curator at the National Art Gallery (a part of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art)
martynas.mankus@vda.lt
PhD, Associate Professor at Department of Architecture of Vilnius Academy of Arts. Vilnius, Lithuania
Gained in translation. Postmodern architecture in late soviet Lithuania
PhD in Architecture from Lviv Polytechnical University, practicing architect at Drozdov&Partners
n.otrishchenko@lvivcenter.org
PhD in Sociology, research fellow in Center for Urban History of East Central Europe. Lviv, Ukraine
From City Structure to Urban Environment: Discussing Lviv Development during 1980s
PhD in History of Architecture, Head of Centre for Urban Studies Kyiv, Ukraine
svitlana.shlipchenko@gmail.com
4Blocks in Podil: Kyiv’s Response to the Crisis of Modernist Planning
lukasz.stanek@manchester.ac.uk
PhD, Professor of Manchester School of Architecture, The University of Manchester Manchester, UK
Two Globalisations: Socialist Architecture at the End of the Cold War
f.urban@gsa.ac.uk
PhD in History and Theory of Architecture, Professor and Head of Architectural History and Urban Studies in the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. Glasgow, UK
The Postmodern Old Town of Elbląg
vlasenko@mit.edu
Master of Urban Studies (Malmö), GIZ Integrated Development Project Coordinator. Kyiv, Ukraine
Late Soviet megaprojects and contemporary Ukrainian historiography: the case of Kyiv’s 1500-th anniversary
wisniewm@uek.krakow.pl
PhD in Art History and Architecture, professor in the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, member of the board of the Institute of Architecture Foundation. Kraków, Poland
The case of Centrum E Estate in Krakow - Nowa Huta
dzadorin@gmail.com / d.a.zadorin@sms.ed.ac.uk
Architect, PhD student in architectural history at the University of Edinburgh. Edinburgh, UK
The Language of Mass Architectural Postmodernity