Scenarios for the collective housing from the socialist period in Bucharest
When it comes to contemporary urban development Eastern European countries lend themselves to be regarded as a testing ground: their striving to catch up with Western Europe is matched by rapid, often brutal changes. This exhibition takes Bucharest as a sample city to analyse the evolution socialist collective housing estates underwent during the past twenty years. It explores ideas, articulates principles and brings forth case studies to help model a strategy for the urban rehabilitation of such areas. It speaks of the frantic individualism that replaced the imposed collectivism of yesteryears, of the public – private interplay, of social and economic mechanisms, of architecture and (above all) public space. The project suggests an alternative approach, based on community activation, minimal resources, and on a „positive takeover” of current tendencies.
Magic Blocks is an Archis Interventions, Zeppelin, Arhitectura magazine and Point 4 initiative, launched in cooperation with ATU, Space Syntax Romania, Hackenbroich Architekten, Platforma 9,81
BERLIN
Location: AedesLand, Savignyplatz, Else-Ury-Bogen 600-601, 10623, Berlin
Duration of exhibition: 8th Sept.–29th Oct. 2009
Opening: Tuesday, 8th September 2009, 6:30pm
Opening times: daily 10am – 8pm
www.aedes-arc.de
BUCHAREST
The exhibition will be open also in Bucharest during November 2009, followed by a series of professional conferences and the launching of the “ Magic Blocks” book.
The project is supported by Union of Architects Romania, ERSTE Foundation, Austrian Cultural Forum Bucharest and The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Romania
Project financed by the The Romanian Cultural Institute through the Cantemir Program
