City of Ruins
behance.net
behance.net
If you've never been to Poland, land in Warsaw, spend a day or two, then head south to Kraków. The amazing disparity between a city leveled in WWII and rebuilt by communists and a city untouched by the Nazis (and therefore the Soviets) is heartbreaking.
However, if you are visiting Kraków for pleasure I can also strongly recommend a day you will not enjoy: a visit to the nearby Auschwitz and, worst of all, Auschwitz-Birkenau. If you do go, I would recommend making sure you go with a guide - the one we had did an excellent job of explaining what we were seeing. One comment in particular he made I will never forget, while we were standing looking at the remains of one of the huge gas chambers he said:
"More people died in that room than at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined"
I heartily recommend Ryszard Kapuscinski's 'Imperium' (it's available in English) if you want to learn more about the Soviet Union in general and different cultures inhabiting it at the time. A lot of spot-on analysis of how the system worked. Brilliant documentary writing, too.
Communist architecture followed the principles of communist architecture. Diversion from what the state thought was a good idea was highly un-recommended. The principles of communist architecture started off from a lot of high-minded platitudes about equality and national purpose, but in practice always translated to a monstrous block of filthy grey concrete with tiny windows that looks awful from a distance and only gets worse as you get closer.
It wasn't confined to the eastern bloc either, you can find plenty of horrible examples of a similar style dreamed up by western architects infected by similar principles; pretty much anything ugly, grey, concrete, and mid-century. They continue to blight our cities and (especially) our university campuses. But reconstruct a whole city in the same milieu, and you'll have Warsaw.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konigsberg_Castle
. . . where they replaced a pretty castle with something like you describe.
Like, say, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTS_Tower ?
(To be fair, it's pebblecrete.)
Ba aware that to many conservative Americans, "liberal" is pretty much the same thing as "communist".
In other parts of the world, you have more parties, which makes room for liberal parties that are in favor of both gay marriage and tax breaks for the rich.
"The meaning of "conservatism" in America has little in common with the way the word is used elsewhere. As Ribuffo (2011) notes, "what Americans now call conservatism much of the world calls liberalism or neoliberalism."[21]"
One thing I can agree is that cities that had to be rebuilt share the common thing that they are often an architectural mess and by that means they are ugly. Let's compare say, Berlin (which actually I like, because I feel it's a better version of Warsaw), even the west part, and gorgeous Prague.
> we had it no less tough here than you Varsovians.
I know.
Krakow's greater center is just gorgeous, I really loved it. But it was a similar experience, to a certain degree, as well. On a train from Katowice, the first sight was something called "Krakow Business Park", disgusting office park, a place that doesn't belong anywhere, I work in a similar project and it is almost the same. Glass blocks surrounded by an endless parking lot. Then some recent suburban development, complete clusterfuck under all circumstances. And looking from Kazimierz across Wisla, what I saw on the other bank was also very disappointing. Or this https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-dO_Cw7ayCQk/Tx2LuPNmF0I/A..., seen right from the castle Wawel. And this was not built by the soviet engineers. Not much has changed after 1989. Maybe nothing at all.
This sums it all. You don't need a war. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/4967/houstons-cars-...
It's a huge mess of different styles, one building uglier than the next. If you're in Germany and want to see a beautiful city, visit Dresden.
Now, I've never been to Warsaw, but judging from other cities I've seen that have been destroyed in a similar way, many cities -- and especially city centers -- never even managed to evoke the original looks. From their modern day form, you can only guess how the city used to look like, given enough fantasy (if at all possible).
So while it is a huge tragedy, at least what you see are reproduction, not 50's/60's concrete blocks that were built out of necessity to supply somewhat affordable commercial and residental space.
I still remember my younger brother, as a 10-year old, visiting one of the French Loire castles and asking my parents: "so, all this was rebuilt after the war, right?".
We should all learn. Never again.
I feel I do not have the right to say "nah, I don't really care" — I haven't earned it. I owe a debt to our grandfathers, who ran around with guns, fighting for our freedom, as well as to my parents' generation, who managed to break out from under communist (Soviet) rule. People who did run around with guns have earned the right not to go and vote — I did not.
in Europe.
It would be incredible to see this done to Dresden as well, another city that was absolutely decimated by the war.
So, for example, you could be in a nice building and look across the street and look at a dilapidated building in disrepair. It's a weird juxtaposition but one shaped by economics and demographics.
edit: I found the full video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrlE99I_Q9A