Overview

How socialist architects, planners, and contractors worked collectively to urbanize and develop the Global South during the Soviet eraIn the course of the Cold War, architects, planners, and construction companies from socialist Eastern Europe engaged in a vibrant collaboration with those in West Africa and the Middle East in order to bring modernization to the developing world. Architecture in Global Socialism shows how their collaboration reshaped five cities in the Global South: Accra, Lagos, Baghdad, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait City.Lukasz Stanek describes how local authorities and professionals in these cities drew on Soviet prefabrication systems, Hungarian and Polish planning methods, Yugoslav and Bulgarian construction materials, Romanian and East German standard designs, and manual laborers from across Eastern Europe. He explores how the socialist development path was adapted to tropical conditions in Ghana in the 1960s, and how Eastern European architectural traditions were given new life in 1970s Nigeria. He looks at how the differences between socialist foreign trade and the emerging global construction market were exploited in the Middle East in the closing decades of the Cold War. Stanek demonstrates how these and other practices of global cooperation by socialist countries-what he calls socialist worldmaking-left their enduring mark on urban landscapes in the postcolonial world.Featuring an extensive collection of previously unpublished images, Architecture in Global Socialism draws on original archival research on four continents and a wealth of in-depth interviews. This incisive book presents a new understanding of global urbanization and its architecture through the lens of socialist internationalism, challenging long-held notions about modernization and development in the Global South.

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Reviews

This is one of those books that turns a discipline upside down - the cold war, state socialism, eastern Europe and 20th-century architecture all look different in the light of its findings . . . [it is] a pioneering work of revisionist history that ought to be read far beyond the those already interested in architecture . . . what [Stanek] achieves here is enormous: a book that rewrites not only the history of the cold war, but also the history of globalisation and global urbanization. ---Owen Hatherly, The Guardian

Rather than describing global urbanisation as a process that was visited upon societies in the developing world by western consultants, Stanek's history reveals the role played by socialist architects in constructing a negotiated future in which local rulers, authorities and communities took an active interest in shaping their own destinies. Free from big-name architects and landmarks, Architecture in Global Socialism also gives voice to a largely forgotten body of professionals who travelled to the non-aligned world - neither communist nor pro-West - during the Cold War and whose lives and careers were enriched and globalised in the process. ---Nick Leech, The National This is one of those books that turns a discipline upside down - the cold war, state socialism, eastern Europe and 20th-century architecture all look different in the light of its findings . . . [it is] a pioneering work of revisionist history that ought to be read far beyond the those already interested in architecture . . . what [Stanek] achieves here is enormous: a book that rewrites not only the history of the cold war, but also the history of globalisation and global urbanization. ---Owen Hatherly, The Guardian This incisive book presents a new understanding of global urbanization and its architecture through the lens of socialist internationalism, challenging long held notions about modernization and development in the global South. ---Georgina Johnston, World Architecture News [Architecture in Global Socialism] challenges cold-war preconceptions of the roles played by those from Eastern European socialist countries who worked collectively to urbanise and develop the Global South during the Soviet era. ---Michael Boncza, Morning Star An epic, revisionist study many years in the making, centering on how Non-Aligned countries in the post-war era employed professionals from Eastern and Central Europe to plan and build their post-colonial urban spaces. ---Owen Hatherley, Tribune [Stanek's] omniscience is impressive. ---Jonathan Meades, Literary Review

An indispensable resource for scholars that goes beyond architecture and urban planning to engage with broader historical and political issues. -Jean-Louis Cohen, author of Architecture in Uniform and The Future of Architecture Since 1889 Architecture in Global Socialism is a major contribution. This is a brilliantly original book that fundamentally recasts our understanding of architecture in a worldwide frame. It will become a canonical reference point for scholars and students of postwar global architecture. -Neil Brenner, professor of urban theory, Harvard University

Author Information

ukasz Stanek is senior lecturer at the Manchester School of Architecture, University of Manchester, UK. He is the author of Henri Lefebvre on Space: Architecture, Urban Research, and the Production of Theory and the editor of Team 10 East: Revisionist Architecture in Real Existing Modernism. Twitter @StanekLukasz

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