At the fall of Utopia

Decker, Pascal De; Newton, Caroline

doi:10.5379/urbani-izziv-en-2009-20-02-001

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…In fact, despite "large scale estates have been carefully planned" 26 by scientists, architects and other experts, these efforts did not lead "to the intended satisfaction and popularity". 27 It is possible to claim that "the Modernistic thoughts inspired by CIAM movement and Le Corbusier seem to have lost the appeal they once held" 28 and that "what seemed like good solutions in the aftermath of WW2 often became dystopias". 29 The planning process and consequent urban design revealed since the beginning a potentially problematic situation.…”

Section: Analysis Of Current Situation: Anatomy Of a Decline?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, such a situation negatively affected the identity of people living in mass housing, who often see themselves as "inferior": their financial conditions do not allow them to make individual choices and they must live in areas that, according to the dominant narration, "house the residue of society. " 44 For these reasons, has been claimed that people living in postwar estates "are structurally discriminated": 45 they have no power in the housing market and they are marginal in the society; moreover, "they see their marginality reproduced and enlarged" 46 in their estates.…”

Section: Analysis Of Current Situation: Anatomy Of a Decline?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Modern Urban Planning and Dissonant Heritage: The Case of San Polo

Belli

2020

Art History &Amp; Criticism

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SummaryThe aim of the article is to understand to what extent modern mass housing estates, built in the decades following the Second World War with new construction methods and under the influence of innovative planning ideas and egalitarian philosophy, are currently facing a process of decline. In particular, the research is committed to understand how such innovative urban structures rapidly evolved into stigmatized places of residence and sources of dissonant heritage. The work focuses on the case of San Polo, a neighbourhood of Brescia, in Italy, designed by architect, planner and historian Leonardo Benevolo, who had the opportunity in the northern Italian city to experiment and implement his architectural views in the sphere of “public urbanization”. It is possible to claim that Benevolo’s theoretical approach and architectural practice excellently represented the golden age of modern housing in postwar Europe, when the connection between progressive political views and egalitarian urban planning was apparently perfect. Nevertheless, after the political and economic transition that characterized western Europe since the 1980s, mass housing quickly became a residual issue in the public discourse and entered in a spiral of decline. San Polo was no exception: problems – especially in its iconic tower blocks – soon emerged, and overall optimistic expectations were frustrated by the reality of physical, social and economic decline. This study is therefore committed to understand to what extent San Polo is a case of dissonant heritage in the urban context. While it is clear that the heritage of San Polo is the heritage of a precise historical phase and represents particular ideas in architecture and planning, on the other hand it must be stressed that the ideological transition of recent decades made its values and its messages obsolete and that socio-economic segregation negatively affected the reputation of the neighbourhood and its inhabitants had to face a process of stigmatization that found echo in official and journalistic discourse.

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Section: Analysis Of Current Situation: Anatomy Of a Decline?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Analysis Of Current Situation: Anatomy Of a Decline?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern Urban Planning and Dissonant Heritage: The Case of San Polo

Belli

2020

Art History &Amp; Criticism

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“…Although convenient access-to consumer services, healthcare, education, and recreation-served as a founding principle for mikrorayons, new districts were in practice often poorly equipped with services (Gentile and Sjöberg 2006;Hausladen 1987;Kalm 2012;Svetlichnyi 1960;Temelová et al 2011;Cinis et al 2008). A significant share of the service component was delayed or never built (De Decker and Newton 2009;Gentile 2004;Sjöberg 1992). For this reason, the Soviet urban experience differed significantly from idealistic visions.…”

Section: Service Network Fall Short Of Promisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Incomplete Service Networks in Enduring Socialist Housing Estates: Retrospective Evidence from Local Centres in Estonia

Leetmaa

Hess

2019

The Urban Book Series

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Scholarly literature frequently refers to the incompleteness of service infrastructure in socialist housing estates. This has been considered a major failing of socialist residential landscapes that were planned and built according to scientific principles offering a high quality of life to residents through rational and technical design standards. This chapter presents visual and context-based evidence to illustrate how compromises in the service networks of newly built modernist housing estates were made during the socialist years. To do so, we investigate contemporaneous circumstances and decisions that delayed or (indefinitely) postponed the construction of neighbourhood services and community infrastructure. We ground our arguments in the evolution of Väike-Õismäe, a 1970s-era housing estate in Tallinn, Estonia. Findings suggest that even in one of the most admired residential districts, recognised with a prestigious architectural award from the Soviet state, the initial visions of the architect were unrealised and adjustments to plans were made in the earliest phases of implementation before construction began.

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“…Functions like schooling, shopping and recreational opportunities were underdeveloped (De Decker and Newton 2009). In Southern European housing estates, the public transport connections to the rest of the city are often underdeveloped (Dekker and Van Kempen 2004).…”

Section: Weaknesses In Urban Design and Inadequate Spatial Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Is to Blame for the Decline of Large Housing Estates? An Exploration of Socio-Demographic and Ethnic Change

Bolt¹

2018

The Urban Book Series

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In the 1960s and 1970s, all over Europe housing estates emerged that were very similar with respect to construction methods and urban design. At the same time, housing estates across Europe did not all follow the same trajectory after their completion. This divergence occurred because the main reasons for their deterioration and social degradation are exogenous factors, not internal factors. Of course, it makes a difference whether the physical quality of the dwellings was good and whether the spatial planning was adequate. But even well-designed housing estates are subject to social degradation due to competition with newer neighbourhoods that are usually added at the top of the market and more geared to contemporary housing preferences. In Western Europe, this process of relative depreciation is further exacerbated by the prioritisation of owner-occupation leading to residualisation of the social rented sector. The social and ethnic transformation of large housing estates is not only the consequence of planning and housing policies but also of external factors like immigration and economic decline. Most European countries have witnessed a substantial inflow of immigrants in the previous decades, and many of these find their way to large housing estates. Next to that, the social decline of housing estates is often related to a shrinking local economy. Policies aimed at reversing the decline hurt the sitting population more often than it helped them.

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At the fall of Utopia

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Modern Urban Planning and Dissonant Heritage: The Case of San Polo

Modern Urban Planning and Dissonant Heritage: The Case of San Polo

Incomplete Service Networks in Enduring Socialist Housing Estates: Retrospective Evidence from Local Centres in Estonia

Who Is to Blame for the Decline of Large Housing Estates? An Exploration of Socio-Demographic and Ethnic Change

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