Papers
Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism, 2014
In the field of monument restoration of modern architecture, photography represents one of the mo... more In the field of monument restoration of modern architecture, photography represents one of the most significant sources of information on a building’s original form. Modern photography, with its technologies and imaging methods, has often not preserved the actual form of structures but rather illustrated the photographer’s artistic impression of the object. Studies of, for example, the Unitas housing complex, which was constructed in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, in 1931, show the role of photographs of new objectivity in publicizing the project and at the same time point to some problems brought forth in the process of its restoration. This article discusses the significance of the Unitas housing complex within the architectonic discussion of the period, along with the position of its architect, Friedrich Weinwurm, in the local avant-garde. It provides information on the artists who photographed the complex, characterizes their artistic approaches, and evaluates the contribution of these photographs to the process of restoration. On the background of the monument restoration of the complex, the contribution shows the standard approaches of the Monuments Board and the reconstruction’s architects, and comments critically on the absence of restoration research. Only sound surveys and subsequent laboratory optical/physical and chemical/technological analyses of selected samples supplied reliable information on the original coloring of the complex. The limited documentary ability of black-and-white photography in the restoration of the original colors was confirmed in an experiment during which the authors photographed a model of the original plaster and prepared photos that differentiated the exposure length and the properties of the filters. This study reveals the necessity of applying all available sources of information, from archive research through restoration research up to laboratory analysis, in the process of monument restoration of modern architectural works.
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Peter Szalay - Mária Topolčanská: Accessible housing as an ideological interface of public and pr... more Peter Szalay - Mária Topolčanská: Accessible housing as an ideological interface of public and private interests in city planning
Ideologies behind the modern phenomena of mass housing were many and it is crucial to read their impact on contemporary European cities in the frame of different historical circumstances that accompanied the modern project of socially accessible housing as developed almost simultaneously in both democratic and totalitarian societies in Europe during entire 20th century: the rise of the modern planning in the interwar period, its role within the post-war reconstruction of Europe under welfare states in the West and communist states in the East and the fall of the inherent utopia of the modern plan that lasted till early 1990s in the Central and Eastern Europe.
The case study of the Bratislava mass housing project Dlhé Diely- the last one ideologically determined, planned and promoted as a key public interest by the communist state - offers an useful insight into the ideological complexity of the phenomena when its realization hit the edge of the decay of the belief in planning large scale public housing projects as such and at a moment of total privatization of the social housing and liberation of urban planning standards and regulations that takes place in Bratislava till today. The consequences of these tendencies have immense impact on its actual urban quality.
Since 1990s the Western Europe was already preparing new ways of planning accessible housing projects informed of the mistakes and failed ambitions of modernity. The case of IJburg new Amsterdam housing and public development planned since 1990s and inhabited recently shows how state and municipal interests in providing accessible housing for large part of society – the issue completely abandoned in our post-communist era city planning – forms contemporary and complex urbanity in Europe today.
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Mesto a dejiny [The City and History] journal
by Peter Fedorčák, Martin Pekar, Andras Vadas, Mária Fedorčáková Petrovičová, Zuzana Tokarova, Maroš Melichárek, Ján Kovačič, Michal Franko, Jirásek Ondřej, Szalay Peter, and Drahoslav Magdoško Mesto a dejiny, 2017
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Ideologies behind the modern phenomena of mass housing were many and it is crucial to read their impact on contemporary European cities in the frame of different historical circumstances that accompanied the modern project of socially accessible housing as developed almost simultaneously in both democratic and totalitarian societies in Europe during entire 20th century: the rise of the modern planning in the interwar period, its role within the post-war reconstruction of Europe under welfare states in the West and communist states in the East and the fall of the inherent utopia of the modern plan that lasted till early 1990s in the Central and Eastern Europe.
The case study of the Bratislava mass housing project Dlhé Diely- the last one ideologically determined, planned and promoted as a key public interest by the communist state - offers an useful insight into the ideological complexity of the phenomena when its realization hit the edge of the decay of the belief in planning large scale public housing projects as such and at a moment of total privatization of the social housing and liberation of urban planning standards and regulations that takes place in Bratislava till today. The consequences of these tendencies have immense impact on its actual urban quality.
Since 1990s the Western Europe was already preparing new ways of planning accessible housing projects informed of the mistakes and failed ambitions of modernity. The case of IJburg new Amsterdam housing and public development planned since 1990s and inhabited recently shows how state and municipal interests in providing accessible housing for large part of society – the issue completely abandoned in our post-communist era city planning – forms contemporary and complex urbanity in Europe today.
Mesto a dejiny [The City and History] journal
Ideologies behind the modern phenomena of mass housing were many and it is crucial to read their impact on contemporary European cities in the frame of different historical circumstances that accompanied the modern project of socially accessible housing as developed almost simultaneously in both democratic and totalitarian societies in Europe during entire 20th century: the rise of the modern planning in the interwar period, its role within the post-war reconstruction of Europe under welfare states in the West and communist states in the East and the fall of the inherent utopia of the modern plan that lasted till early 1990s in the Central and Eastern Europe.
The case study of the Bratislava mass housing project Dlhé Diely- the last one ideologically determined, planned and promoted as a key public interest by the communist state - offers an useful insight into the ideological complexity of the phenomena when its realization hit the edge of the decay of the belief in planning large scale public housing projects as such and at a moment of total privatization of the social housing and liberation of urban planning standards and regulations that takes place in Bratislava till today. The consequences of these tendencies have immense impact on its actual urban quality.
Since 1990s the Western Europe was already preparing new ways of planning accessible housing projects informed of the mistakes and failed ambitions of modernity. The case of IJburg new Amsterdam housing and public development planned since 1990s and inhabited recently shows how state and municipal interests in providing accessible housing for large part of society – the issue completely abandoned in our post-communist era city planning – forms contemporary and complex urbanity in Europe today.