Contentious Spaces: Uncovering the Hidden Narratives of State-Socialist Built Heritage

The architectural heritage of socialist modernism and conservation in former Eastern Bloc countries.

Contentious Spaces explores the heritage of state-socialist architecture and urbanism, examining the socio-political, economic, and cultural processes that shaped these developments. The articles collected in this volume investigate both the conservation and preservation of this heritage, as well as the historicisation of modernist architectural vocabulary in the contemporary era. Moreover, the texts consider the heritage of state-socialist architecture and urban planning in relation to the global built environment and current geopolitical and socio-cultural processes.

By engaging with marginalised actors and spaces within post-socialist discourse, Contentious Spaces expands existing scholarship and acknowledges the architectural heritage of women architects and minorities, as well as the links between political centres of power and modernist architecture in geopolitical peripheries and their contemporary heritage. Geographically, the chapters engage with East-Central Europe, Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and other post-socialist spaces worldwide.