Magic Blocks
Friday, May 14, from 17.00h
Cluj – Cinema Victoria – Bulevardul Eroilor
Speaker: Constantin Goagea
Scenarios for socialist collective housing estates 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 project 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. Our project suggests an alternative approach, based on community activation, minimal resources, and on a „positive
takeover” of current tendencies.
