Research Catalog

Title

Architecture in global socialism : Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War / Łukasz Stanek.

Author

Stanek, Łukasz

Publication

• Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020]
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vii, 357 pages : illustrations (some color), maps (some color), portraits, plans; 29 cm

Summary

In 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 East 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 Featuring an extensive collection of previously unpublished images, Architecture in Global Socialism draws on original archival research in sixteen countries and a wealth of in-depth interviews.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.

Subjects

• History
• 1900-1999
• West Africa
• Middle East
• Eastern Europe
• Socialist realism and architecture
• Architecture > Middle East
• Architecture > Africa, West
• Architecture > Europe, Eastern
• Architecture, Modern > 20th century

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

Sc F 21-53

ISBN

• 0691168709
• 9780691168708

OCLC

1099685864

Author

Stanek, Łukasz, author.

Title

Architecture in global socialism : Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War / Łukasz Stanek.

Publisher

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2020]

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Research Call Number

Sc F 21-53