scholarly journals The best housing estate in Czechoslovakia

2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (3) ◽  
pp. 032010
Author(s):  
Adam Guzdek

Abstract The Brno housing estate Lesna is undoubtedly an important achievement of Czechoslovak urbanism and architecture of the 1960s. It was built on the southern slopes north of Brno in 1962–1970 according to a project by a team of architects Frantisek Zounek, Viktor Rudis, Miroslav Dufek and Ladislav Volak. Although it was a standard housing construction made of prefabricated components, the architects did not want to hide its technical expression. They also fully copied it into the very urban arrangement of long blocks, which contributed to the fulfillment of the vision of the garden city. Close cooperation between the supplier, investor and designer was ensured already in the phase of elaboration of the project task. The architecture of residential buildings is based on the diligent efforts of the whole team to promote the use of a lightweight facade of a prefabricated house using parapet panels and strip glazing in the B 60 construction system. The unusually high-quality solution of the public space in the Lesna housing estate was mainly due to the time of its creation. Political liberalization in the 1960s allowed architects to come up with a generous plan for a free stop and thus perfectly fulfill the vision of a garden city. The population density of the Lesna housing estate, less than two hundred inhabitants per hectare, was multiplied by up to four hundred inhabitants per hectare in other housing estates of the "president Gustav Husak" era due to tightening economic indicators. Public greenery respecting the natural elements of the rugged relief required a different professional approach due to the extent of the exterior design. It was common practice that landscaping were carried out on residential complexes with a delay of several months and years after the first inhabitants moved in. The architects managed to reverse this common practice, so the first inhabitants moved to finished houses with access sidewalks, planted greenery and functioning residential amenities. This could not have been imagined by its inhabitants in the later realizations of housing estates. That is why the Brno housing estate Lesna is rightly called the best.

2018 ◽  
pp. 53-66
Author(s):  
Ewa Dyk

For years, the motorized and uncontrolled degradation of the public space of housing estates from the second half of the twentieth century in Poland has been appropriated. This has a negative impact on their functioning and image. The aim of the work is a detailed analysis of Kielce housing estate from the second half of the last century – Pod Dalnią, mainly in the spatial and communication aspect. The main focus was on the study of changes in the communication service model and the diagnosis of the parking problem, which also generates other tensions in the housing estate. This strives to formulate guidelines for comprehensive changes and strategies for the development of a housing estate that is not adapted to contemporary requirements and needs.


Author(s):  
Ikiriko Tamunoikuronibo Dawaye ◽  

A major key indicator for assessing the quality of an urban residential neighborhood is the building condition. A good building condition adds value to a neighborhood in terms of aesthetics, safety, security and comfort. The Rivers State Government has in 1986 - 1998 built 12 residential estates for her staff members in the study area. The responsibility of maintenance of the buildings has been left to the owner occupiers of those houses. What is the state of those houses which has been built for over 30years? It is on this note that this study is poised to ascertain the physical condition of buildings within the public housing estates in Port Harcourt municipality. This study is a quantitative research that belongs to the class called “descriptive research design”. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 108 respondents (household heads) from the six selected housing estates. Questionnaire, physical observation and digital camera were the tools used for data collection. Analysis of findings was presented descriptively in tables, charts and percentages. Among the twelve public housing estates identified within the study area, the simple random sampling method was used to select and study six of the estates which are: 1. Aggrey Housing Estate, 2. Marine Base Govt. Housing Estate, 3. Abuloma housing estate phase, 4. Ndoki Housing Estate, 5. Elekahia housing estate and, 6. Khana Street Housing Estate. The research findings show the physical condition of buildings within the public housing estates, 81.5% of the buildings has good foundation, 92.6% of the windows are in good condition, 95.4% of the buildings have water system. 65% of the respondents considered the overall housing condition of the estates as good (needs no repair) while 35% saw the housing condition as fairly good (needs minor repair).


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Salvador José Sanchís Gisbert ◽  
Pedro Ponce Gregorio ◽  
Ignacio Peris Blat

Marcel Breuer was in the first year of architectural technicians to graduate from Bauhaus School. The peculiar education he received there allowed him to explore the concept of design in its broadest sense. In his European stage we find, on the most private and small scale, unique solutions for furniture. In his first American stage we see a strong commitment with solutions related to the residential land and, when he earned international recognition, he developed large scale solutions for his public non-residential buildings and urban equipments in locations all over the world. It is strange to see that an architect like him did not have the opportunity to materialize any of his proposals associated with the public space. The 1945 Cambridge Servicemen’s Memorial project, also known as the Memorial War, is the most significant one he developed in his last years in Cambridge. Had it been built, it would have been a valuable example of modernity and contemporary reinterpretation of the monument in the public space.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jafar Mirzaee Porkoli

<p><b>The core argument of this thesis is on the aporetic moment/space of decision and the poetics of the to-come in John Milton's works, with the fundamental importance of the individual. For Milton, this moment/space is radically critical and free, and individually problematic, which goes beyond the usual private/public space even though the public aspects and responsibilities of the person's decision demonstrate exceptional significance in the form of public enactment. In Milton's terms, the experience of such an aporetic moment/space of decision is indispensible for those who want to become a "fit reader" and develop the essential qualities and attributes. I will argue that Milton has always written with the desire to highlight and exemplify the absolute singularity of such a moment and experience throughout his life and works, both prose and poetry.</b></p> <p>The thesis will represent its arguments in two sections. The first section, through a consideration of Derrida's arguments in his works (in particular: "The Laws of Reflection: Nelson Mandela, in Admiration," "The Future of the Profession or the Unconditional University," "Force of Law: 'The Mystical Foundation of Authority,'" and "This Strange Institution Called Literature") together with a selection of Milton's writings, mainly prose (including: Areopagitica, Eikonoklastes, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, and Paradise Lost), will examine and identify possible continuities and convergences between the two writers. Such an intimate juxtaposition and close reading of their works has promisingly offered recognition of continuities, convergences, and affinities in their thought in terms of the qualities and attributes of the "fit reader" and the "democratic intellect." In the opening five chapters, the interactive reading highlights fundamental questions and notions for both writers, including the question of exemplarity or singularity, the notion of public space without conditions, the question of justice beyond the law, the critique of violence, and the question of literature as a lawless institution, providing me with the essential terminology to formulate new interpretations of Milton's works, in particular, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes.</p> <p>The second part of the thesis uses the conceptions and terms developed in the opening chapters to read the two late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, as singular examples of Milton's fit reader, the aporetic moment/space of decision, and the poetics of the to-come by setting out the general comparative points between them. The focus of my arguments in these chapters will be on the hypothesis that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes are both demonstrating the aporetic moment/space of decision - confusingly replete with uncertainties, complexities, and indeterminacies - and the dominant poetics of the to-come as well as arguing for the singularity of the moment, decision, and enactment of the decision in each poem. I will argue that Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes provide outstanding exemplifications of Milton's notion of the "fit reader" developing similar qualities and attributes in common with Derrida's "democratic intellect."Milton's works represent the aporetic moment/space of decision as an ongoing process; it is a singular moment in which uncertainties and indeterminacies produce unresolvable choices, but where a decision must nonetheless be made; it is a moment of "trial" the result of which cannot be known to the individual "fit reader" in advance. Milton's late poems, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, explore the critical significance of this moment and demonstrate that no certain, fixed, pre-programmed, or predetermined model or frame can be applied to the resolution of aporetic moments of decision in different times, places, and contexts. The "fit reader" is one who radically and critically reads and re-reads aporetic situations, full of inescapable indeterminacies and unresolved choices, and expresses his individual judgement in the singular form of a true decision (not calculation) to advance the possibilities of truth, justice, and humanity.</p>


Author(s):  
Przemysław Cieślak

Contemporary urbanists and architects are faced with the problem of adapting degraded post-communist neighbourhoods to the current needs of their inhabitants. Most of those housing estates need rehabilitation which is understood as an aspiration for reconstruction of settlement’s range as a human-friendly environment and regain it’s lost values. A CPTED strategy could be very helpful to define guidelines for the rehabilitation. Based on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design strategy the features of space like natural surveillance, space clarity, territoriality, the feeling of responsibility for public space and management can affect it’s quality. These aspects were very useful set of criteria for the author to try to express guidelines for the rehabilitation of the housing estate in Pabianice. Methods used in the research included physical inventory of the neighbourhood and questionnaire survey among the sample of 100 inhabitants of the analysed area. Conclusions from the use of both mentioned methods are well supplementing each other and are pointing the most severe spatil and social problems in the area. This how the environment of the housing estate looks like in the eyes of it’s inhabitants and visitors were crucial while shaping guidelines for rehabilitation


2021 ◽  
Vol 1203 (2) ◽  
pp. 022090
Author(s):  
Jasenka Čakarić ◽  
Slađana Miljanović ◽  
Aida Idrizbegović Zgonić

Abstract In the second half of the 20th century, the industrialisation and deagrarization of Bosnia and Herzegovina had a strong impact on the dynamics of urban development and economic growth of the post-war Sarajevo, which intensified immigration from its relatively underdeveloped regional environment. This was accompanied by accelerated housing construction, and it encouraged the spatial expansion of the city. Planning guidelines were set by the city administration and were based on the long-term development plans. They identified the disposition of urban functions necessary for housing, work, recreation and traffic, and the policy of building multi-residential buildings was aimed general social interest. At the same time, the planning activities neglected the actual socio-economic status of immigrants who had lesser opportunities for housing through the social distribution system of apartments, began the process of self-organized unregulated settlement construction with single-family houses on the city's slopes. This began an era of two parallel but controversial actions within town space: planned and unregulated housing construction. Spontaneous possession of the city's territory with unregulated construction today is characterised by: complex property-legal relations, high degree of construction, absence of public space, pedestrian communications and service functions, low quality of the infrastructure network, and that settlements are formed on unstable terrains and on active landslides. Since the consequences of the complexity of the situation cannot be addressed through radical urban transformation, we see an alternative in the idea of partial spatial interventions – transformation by method of sanation. Starting with the thesis that construction is always deeply connected to society's understanding of the function of space and the place of man in it, we have opened up a central question, and searching for answers is the basic goal of this paper: Is it possible to solve problems accumulated by decades within Sarajevo's unregulated residential settlements through means of transformation by method of sanation? Or: Can partial spatial interventions improve the overall quality of individual and social life? For the purpose of finding answers, we conducted an analysis of the causes of the formation and genesis of these settlements, as well as a series of problems produced by the accumulation of separate spatial interventions without elementary professional guidance. The results of this analysis showed that the answer to the questions asked can be positive, by establishing a critical relationship with the potential of the space of specific settlement sites, in terms of the degree of functional usability, correlation with utilities and user interactions with the environments they inhabit. We have concluded that it is precisely the potential of individual sites, by logically applying the transformation by method of sanation, will enable dual achievement – the merging the solution within the technical and structural aspect of potential landslides with the articulation of the public on new pedestrian communications. Also, it has been shown that the application of this method enables the typification of technical solutions, functions, contents, activities, urban design, and even the public itself. And this means that the conclusions on the characteristics of individual Sarajevo unregulated residential settlements, endangered by landslides, can offer general guidelines for design concepts, within them, an overall improvement of individual and social life.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136843102096867
Author(s):  
Saul Newman

Recent debates in liberal political theory have sought to come to terms with the post-secular condition, characterised by deep religious pluralism, the resurgence of right-wing populism, as well as new social movements for economic, ecological and racial justice. These forces represent competing claims on the public space and create challenges for the liberal model of state neutrality. To better grasp this problem, I argue for a more comprehensive engagement between liberalism and political theology, by which I understand a mode of theorising that reveals the theological basis of modern secular political concepts. In considering two contrasting approaches to political or public theology – Carl Schmitt’s and Jürgen Moltmann’s – I argue that liberal political theory can and should open itself to a diversity of social movements and ecological struggles that pluralise the political space in ways that unsettle the boundary between the secular and religious.


Open Theology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobin Miller Shearer

AbstractThis essay explores the complex relationship between public prayer and violence during ten years of the Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s and throughout the long civil rights era, activists who used the race-based, highly performative act of public prayer incited violence and drew the nation’s attention to the black freedom struggle. Study of the public prayers that led to violence further suggests that the introduction of prayer into public space acted as a conduit of moral judgment even when intended as a bridge of connection, a pattern that suggests the exercise of public prayer can be a catalyst for violence.


2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 533-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wladimir Sgibnev

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify, describe and critically assess public space in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan, recurring to Henri Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis. Design/Methodology/Approach – The empirical findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork on a courtyard in a housing estate in Khujand in northern Tajikistan. Findings – The paper argues that an analytic dichotomy between the private and the public realm conceals more than it reveals, for the Central Asian case at least. The rhythmanalysis framework is presented as a possible solution to the deficiencies of dichotomic categories. Originality/value – Even if we find a series of scholarly works dealing with (post-)Soviet and/or Central Asian public spaces, they very scarcely provide a critical assessment of the roots and the usefulness of this concept for the regional setting they work in. The paper strives to close this gap and to present Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis framework as a possible solution for overcoming dichotomic categories.


Author(s):  
Cristiana Cellucci

<p class="Abstracttext-VITRUVIOCxSpFirst">The paper deals with the issue of the regeneration of the existing building heritage by framing the problems that characterize the relationships between users-buildings-neighbourhoods in a circular vision. Circular Economy concepts are well suited to the building and construction sector in cities. For example, refurbishing and adaptively reusing underutilized or abandoned buildings can revitalize neighborhoods whilst achieving environmental benefits. A systematic review of the literature and case studies has led to the identification of three areas of action of the CE in the regeneration of the built environment: a Macro-level (the public space), a Micro-level (the single component), a Meso-level (the building). However,  the traditional approach of carrying out timely interventions aimed at responding to individual problems, be they of a structural, energetic, functional nature, relating to the building, the context or the single component is not entirely effective in terms of reformulation of the building characteristics. In this perspective, the paper suggests strategies of circular regeneration of residential buildings through adaptive solutions at room level, home level and urban in pursuit of human wellbeing.</p>


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