Architecture of Descent

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the relationship between history, identity, and architectural design in a city defined by dispossession and displacement. The former German Königsberg, today's Russian Kaliningrad, was annexed, repopulated, and rebuilt during the postwar Soviet period. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 cast a critical light on this annexation, and problematized the belonging of the city to Russia by territorially cutting it off. Using two urban designs of historicized architecture that developed recently in the city, this article revisits the specific interface between urban history and the material forms that it takes. The against-the-grain case of Kaliningrad, where the relationship between people and the city demands constant reinterpretation, points to a distinct role that made-appear historical architecture sometimes plays, and demonstrates different selective and expressive processes that enable it. To make sense of the findings, the article develops a new subcategory within a more general notion "heritage": the architecture of descent. It is especially applicable in cases of disrupted urban development and repossession.

Ugly and uglier: defining value and politics in architecture

“…Previous research in the region (Sezneva 2009(Sezneva , 2013 suggests that a fragmented cityscape composed of buildings from the German, Soviet, and contemporary Russian periods regularly generates public controversies over the worth of its different parts and their value in combination. Building upon this, the current study collected systematic empirical data to analyse further the distribution of subjective positions with regard to the built environment characteristic of Kaliningrad.…”

A part of the world or apart from the world? The postsocialist Global East in the geopolitics of knowledge

“…For instance, having considered the specializations offered by geography departments of all public universities in Poland, Pirog (Pirog 2012, 35) concludes that "the most popular specialisation among students of all universities is tourism". Especially where postsocialist cities are concerned, the focus of this special issue, their past and present have been examined by scholars working in adjacent fields, such as economics (Lane and Myant 2007), sociology (Shevchenko 2008;Morris 2016), anthropology (Rivkin-Fish 2009; Darieva, Kaschuba, and Krebs 2011), urban history (Sezneva 2013), art history (IRWIN 2006), and politics of culture and political communication.…”

Paysage urbain et identités collectives à Kaliningrad

“…Tous les moyens sont mis en place pour prouver « scientifiquement » les racines slaves de ce territoire, permettant d'en légitimer l'appropriation. Aucun historien ne pourra néanmoins prouver les liens du territoire avec une prétendue « civilisation slave » (Sezneva 2013 ;Dementyev 2015). En parallèle, le territoire est repeuplé de Russes et de quelques autres communautés ethniques soviétiques -Biélorusses, Ukrainiens et Lituaniens essentiellement - (Kolossov et Radvanyi 2014).…”

“…Il s'agit de « Kenig », forme raccourcie de Königsberg. Cette nouvelle appellation populaire semble être le signe d'une réappropriation de l'histoire pré-soviétique de la ville par ses habitants actuels, qui ne l'ont pourtant jamais vécue, tout en continuant d'exprimer des attributs identitaires et culturels russes 18 (Berger 2010 ;Sezneva 2013). Plusieurs éléments caractérisent les identités collectives contemporaines à Kaliningrad.…”

“…Premièrement, le retour de l'identité allemande tient à un sentiment de déracinement, effectif sur plusieurs générations (Sezneva 2013). Le repeuplement de Kaliningrad en 1946 et le refus du souvenir du passé allemand simultané ont eu pour conséquence un besoin de construire sur le long terme les identités collectives en recouvrant une forme d'appartenance et une identité aliénée.…”