Architecture and Urbanism in Romania, 1944-1960: Constraint and Experiment

Authors’ Comment

Recent architecture, particularly that of the communist
period, is a subject still under exploration. In the context
of the larger opening provided by research into the
communist period, studies of the architecture and development
of cities are all the more relevant and necessary, complementing
the interests of various other fields. More than presenting
a descriptive viewpoint on architecture, the aim of this book is to reconstruct a series of
connections that have been erased over the course of time and
to eliminate other connections created in order to consolidate
a politically subordinate professional ideology. The
book opens up a wider perspective on the architectural profession:
the relationship between the profession and political,
economic and cultural reorganisation; the status of architecture
in the new context; the changes affected theory and practice
within the profession; the main themes and preoccupations
within the profession.
The timeframe of the research aimed to
reveal the succession of various stages of evolution
since the end of the World War II towards the culminating
moment of the Socialist Realism in 1952, completely
revised in a series of projects inaugurated in 1960.