Contentious Spaces by Maja Babić

Contentious Spaces by Maja Babić

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.

An exciting study which draws on broad theoretical frameworks of urban and architectural heritage following the end of state socialism in EuropeSuggested by its title, Contentious Spaces, this compelling volume captures the multifaceted discourses and rhetorics of urban identity in former socialist states. Through individual chapters that skillfully bring together different intellectual traditions, this book offers insights into the narratives of the complex formation of heritage in vibrant post-socialist cities, also tracing the contours of their acceptance. - Jasna Mariotti, Queen’s University Belfast

Maja Babić is an architectural historian. She is Assistant Professor of History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Groningen.
Tino Mager is Associate Professor of History and Theory of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Groningen and President of ICOMOS Germany.