Beyond post-socialism. The architectural heritage of Warsaw (1939-1975)

The research aims to contribute to the study of a heritage often marginalized by mainstream historiography: the architectural production developed in Eastern European countries after World War II. These countries, which are commonly defined as ‘post-socialist', have undergone a complete reorganization of the social and economic fabric in less than fifty years, thus constituting an exceptional case for the modulation of the urban environment, alongside the dramatic changes that have affected the structure of society. In recent years, the attention on the postsocialist cities has grown, especially in the field of economic and social studies. However, a thorough analysis on post-war history can't exclude the architectural socialist heritage. This legacy is subject to fast social and economic changes and has receives little recognition by authorities, the public opinion and even by scholars. Although socialism had spread in a wide geographical area, it had not developed uniformly, it rather differed from country to country across the Soviet bloc, where the only common condition was the pressure exerted by domestic tensions and the strong uniforming force of the Soviet influence. The field of research has been geographically defined and focuses on a single case study: the city of Warsaw, today's capital of Poland and the former capital of the Polish People's Republic (Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa). It is a city that has been completely destroyed by World War II and has been dramatically rebuilt, or better ‘built' under the guidance of socialist governments. The architectural evolution of socialist Warsaw is analysed across multiple topics such as housing, urbanism, prefabrication, and consumerism. The aim of the work is to redefine the history of the architectural development of the Polish capital, mapping its post-war heritage and investigating the role it has assumed (or that it could assume) in building the local identity as a contemporary post-socialist globalized city