Political Postmodernisms shows how sites outside of Western Europe and North America undermine an established narrative of architecture theory and history. It focuses specifically on postmodern architecture, which is traditionally understood as embodying the flippant and apolitical aesthetics of capitalist affluence. By investigating postmodern architecture’s manifestations in the unlikely settings of Chile during the neoliberal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet and Poland during the late socialist Polish People’s Republic, the book argues for a new account that incorporates the political roles it plays when seen in a global perspective. Political Postmodernisms has three goals. First, it challenges the familiar narrative regarding postmodern architecture as following the “cultural logic of late capitalism” (Fredric Jameson) or as a socially conservative project (Jürgen Habermas). Second, it fills in portions of Chilean and Polish architectural history that have been neglected by Chilean and Polish architectural historians themselves. Third, Political Postmodernisms shows how architecture can work as a political form – serving propagandistic purposes and functioning as part of oppositional projects. The book is projected to be of use to students and scholars in global modern and contemporary architecture history, history of urban planning, East European Studies, and Latin American Studies.
Author(s): Lidia Klein
Series: The Architext Series
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 162
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I.1 The "Rise" and "Fall" of Postmodern Architecture and Urbanism
I.2 The Apolitical Legacy as Culminating in Postmodern Revivalism
I.3 Chilean and Polish Postmodernism
I.4 Recent Scholarship on Postmodernism
I.5 Outline
1 Postmodernism and the State in Pinochet's Chile
1.1 From Eduardo Frei Montalva and Salvador Allende to Augusto Pinochet: Transformations in Urban Space
1.2 Postmodern Architecture as Propaganda: The Plaza De La Constitución and the Congreso Nacional De Chile
2 Postmodernism Against the State Under Pinochet's Dictatorship
2.1 The Origins of CEDLA and its Emergence in Santiago
2.2 CEDLA's Project for Santiago Poniente
2.3 Social Housing
2.4 Dissent and Compliance
2.5 Chile's Distinctive Postmodernism
3 Socialist Postmodernism in the Polish People's Republic
3.1 Postmodern Architecture and Propaganda in the Polish People's Republic
3.2 Architektura
3.3 Na Skarpie Estate (Centrum E)
4 Postmodernism and Dissent in Socialist Poland
4.1 Oppositional Postmodernism: Czeslaw Bielecki and the DiM Group
4.2 Reforming the System From Within: Marek Budzyński and the Legacy of Socialist Realism
4.3 North Ursynów: City, Church, and Continuity
4.4 Poland's Distinctive Postmodernism
Conclusion: Postmodernism as a Political Form
Appendix: Interviews
Interview with Humberto Eliash, August 23, 2016
Interview with Pedro Murtinho, August 30, 2016
Interview with Pedro Murtinho, September 1, 2016
Interview with Pilar Garcia, September 1, 2016
Interview with Cristián Boza, September 5, 2016
Interview with Fernando Pérez Oyarzún, September 6, 2016
Interview with Humberto Eliash, September 7, 2016
Interview with Fernando Pérez Oyarzún, September 12, 2016
Interview with Marta Leśniakowska, June 5, 2017
Interview with Czeslaw Bielecki, June 9, 2017
Interview with Romuald Loegler, July 1, 2017
Interview with Wojciech Szymborski (WS) and Ludwika Borawska Szymborska (LBS), July 26, 2021
Bibliography
Index
