Pre-war Buildings Research Articles

Underground City: Archaeology of the Warsaw Ghetto in its academic, memorial and social context

Archaeological research in ​​the former Warsaw Ghetto conducted in 2021-2022 was the first scientific investigation undertaken in the area in a systematic and planned way. Non-invasive research took place in four locations, followed by excavation campaigns in two selected sites and revealed the cellars of the pre-war buildings and lots of artefacts. Especially interesting was the immediate vicinity of the so-called Anielewicz bunker, where the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, Mordechai Anielewicz, fought his last battle. Very little is known about the bunker itself and the excavations have shed new light on the issue, possibly unearthing part of the bunker's extended structure. We have to be aware that in comparison to the typical problems of urban archaeology, the archaeology of the Warsaw Ghetto faces some specific issues. The post-war buildings in the area were constructed on the rubble of the ancient city, almost completely destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Moreover, the former residential quarter of the murdered Jews carries a huge emotional load, and any archaeological find made here acquires symbolic significance. Thus the social reception of the research is extremely important.

Right to toilets? infra-bio-urbanism over human waste, memories, and housing inequality

This research attends to how urban tenants bring matong (toilets in the form of urine buckets)—which are a material, semiotic, and marketable piece of infrastructure—into the debates over the remaking of a heritage district in Hongkou, Shanghai. Challenges abound for the site, which is occupied by prewar buildings where Jewish refugees found shelter during the war and more than 10 thousand Chinese tenants moved in after the Jews left. Until 2020, the dilapidated buildings accommodated an aging population of tenants who wish to stay relevant to the redevelopment vision of Shanghai and a variety of community business, including urban waste recycling. To find a crack in the state-led, neoliberal system, the tenants managed to exercise infrapolitics—an everyday form of resistance—over an urban infrastructure that is of particular significance to their bio-well-being and beyond. We analyze a set of spatial politics on sanatory infrastructure in Hongkou to understand how the tenants are desperately capitalizing on their disadvantages and reassembling memories, waste, and housing inequality into something more promising from below. The theorization of infra-bio-urbanism upon toilets sheds light on the accumulating anxiety upon housing inequality and infrastructural mobility in globalizing cities in China and beyond.

“Reconstructionism”: A Strategy to Improve Outdated Attempts of Modernist Post-War Planning?

Recently, Germany has seen a series of inner-city projects that tend to reconstruct pre-war buildings or ensembles lost in the Second World War after demolishing earlier attempts to redefine the place in which they had been located with the means of modernist architecture. While those modernist buildings are often seen as “eyesores” by ordinary citizens advocating their demolition, the newer reconstructionist projects are criticized heavily by architects and planners not only because they often bring along revisionist political attitudes but also lack a profound examination of the achievements of their predecessors and do without the creative possibilities new designs may offer. The article discusses the trend in its historical context starting in the early 1980s and flourishing after the German reunification by presenting four major types of reconstructionism and related case studies, and debates that accompany them. This allows an interpretation of the current trend and places it in the wider German debates about post-modern planning and urban design. It shows that beyond the most prominent examples of reconstructionism such as the reconstructed Frauenkirche church in Dresden and the Palace in the center of Berlin, there are certain parameters that loosely determine the trend. The article ends with recommendations for the ongoing debates on future reconstructions of bombed cities.

There is a Prussian spirit here, but it smells of Russia...

After the Great Patriotic War, the Russian settlers were going to build their own world on the ruins of Königsberg and other cities in East Prussia, from where the Germans were deported in 1947. Architects designed neoclassical ensembles, but those plans were not realised. The Soviet towns of East Prussia were built up in the 60s and 70s with five-storey panel blocks and faceless modernist public buildings. The Kaliningrad region did not receive the Soviet identity associated with constructivism and neoclassicism, nor did it ever have a Russian identity. Today people discuss a diffusion of German and Russian cultures, but in reality it comes down to a call to restore the remaining German pre-war buildings and to bring the new buildings in line with them, using explicit and implicit quotations. There are no bearers of German culture in the Kaliningrad region.

Стилістично-естетична трансформація історичної забудови Києва внаслідок руйнувань під час Другої світової війни

The article is about the transformation into historical buildings in Kyiv caused by destruction during the WWII. The author analyses the losses of ruined architectural buildings and objects in 1941-1943, the damages to preserved buildings which have been reconstructed after the war. The architecture of pre-war buildings of Khreshchatyk, Prorizna, Luteranska, Instytutska and other central streets are compared in the article to the post-war architecture of the same streets. The style, the layouts of the streets, the architectural details, the quality of materials and constructions of separate objects are analyzed as well. The destruction of Kyiv during the World War II with the subsequent reconstruction of the city brought significant changes both in the appearance of entire streets and districts and in the architecture of specific objects of the historical buildings of the central part of the city. The streets that suffered from great destruction were significantly re-planned with a change in the architectural concept. Homestead development according to individual projects was replaced by the complex ensemble development in a single stylistic key. Architectural pathos of post-war buildings as well as entire ensembles have low quality of construction materials and works, which led to the gradual destruction. Regardless of the cultural and historical value of such ensembles as the post-war buildings of Khreschatyk, one can state a certain stylistic monotony, which is significantly inferior to the pre-war architectural diversity of Kyiv. Most of damaged Kyiv buildings were renovated with loss of architectural and decorative details. Other buildings were reconstructed. Such reconstructions mostly caused the loss of important architectural accents as towers, bay windows, gables and attics. Only a small number of houses were renovated without loss of decoration. Even fewer buildings were restored with reconstruction that improved their architectural expressiveness. The Second World War caused catastrophic consequences for Kyiv: tens of thousands of Kyivans died or lost their relatives, hundreds of thousands were left homeless, hundreds of buildings and structures were destroyed. But this is not the end of the tragedy of the war for Kyiv. As a result of the destruction of the city, a large-scale reconstruction of its central part was carried out. The complex building in the spirit of a single ensemble, the architecture of which bore clear features of the ideological propaganda of the communist regime was created. We can state the partial loss of architectural authenticity and aesthetics of the city historical buildings. Neither the economic, nor the political, nor the legal systems of the communist regime were able to create higher quality and highly artistic buildings in the conditions of total totalitarianism. In the absence of private ownership of real estate, all buildings of post-war Kyiv were repaired and reconstructed without taking into account their values and aesthetics. As a result, a significant proportion of the rebuilt objects lost a significant part of their decor and were distorted during the construction works. Key words: WWII, Kyiv, architecture, rebuilding, destruction, reconstruction, transformation, aesthetic.

A second life for school buildings by atelier PRO architects

Many educational buildings still do not have proper ventilation systems, are not sustainable in use, and contribute to the spread of Covid-19 viruses. The biggest challenge for the future is to provide attractive, useable, healthy, and sustainable educational buildings in the Netherlands. But is this challenge realistic? Old buildings are usually demolished and replaced by new ones because the government hardly gives any compensation for building renovation or transformation. This leads to the demolition of many school buildings even though the application of new raw materials is not circular and has an impact on our climate and environment. Furthermore, many pre-war buildings are heritage that have a positive impact on neighbourhoods. It is unclear who is responsible for educational buildings, renovation, and financing all the ambitions. The government, the municipality or the school foundation? Problems will soon be exacerbated. At this moment the environmental impact (MilieuPrestatieGebouwen MPG) has no legal base however, this will rapidly change in the age of a circular economy and the upcoming renovation wave. Atelier PRO architects designs many educational buildings and they noticed a change of attitude in conceptualizing educational buildings the last years in the forerunner municipality Amsterdam. Based on these cases and experiences atelier PRO learned their lessons about the ideal renovation towards attractive, healthy and sustainable educational buildings.

Forgotten shelters of Kłodzko Land. On architecture inspired by the local building tradition

The article addresses the problem of the decline in the number of tourist facilities with outstanding features of regional architecture, built before 1945 in Kłodzko Land. Their destruction is an irreparable loss for the cultural heritage of the described region. Usually designed in the spirit of the local building tradition – born out of centuries of experience of the people living here – hostels, inns and taverns were a characteristic, regional distinguishing feature of the landscape of Kłodzko Land. Meanwhile, the new architecture of objects related to tourism, built after the end of the Second World War, most often does not refer to the characteristic forms and structures of local buildings. The article stresses the need to put an end to the often deliberate practice of destroying old pre-war buildings and to draw the attention of architects working today to the importance of continuing local, regional forms in the emerging tourist facilities.

Residential districts of the socialist realism period in Poland (1949−1956). Analysis, comparison and protection

The article analyzes four residential districts from the period of Socialist Realism in Poland: Marszałkowska Residential District in Warsaw, Kościuszkowska Residential District in Wrocław, residential Nowa Huta in Cracow and Downtown Residential District in Szczecin. These districts are analyzed in terms of urban layout, architectural forms, building intensity, and green areas. Common features of these housing complexes, characteristic for socialist realism architecture in Poland, were also examined. The authors also consider the protective methods of individual housing complexes. Each of the examined residential districts is considered in two aspects - the urban layout and architecture as well as the form of protection and it condition of the present day. For each analyzed housing complex, a map was prepared showing the scale of the urban layout and the percentage share of pre-war buildings, buildings from the period under study, and buildings erected in later years.

IN WITH THE OLD: COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN HERITAGE MANAGEMENT IN SELECTED MALAYSIAN TOURIST SITES

Rather than replacing the aged with the brand new, lifestyle producers and consumers are embracing a vintage revival. The rejuvenation of pre-war buildings as tourist attractions have become a recent trend, especially in Petaling Street, a major historical site in the heart of Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur. However, there is a lack of study on the existing forms of community participation in heritage management among historical tourist sites in Kuala Lumpur. My study addressed this issue through ethnographic fieldwork in Petaling Street’s Chinatown, combining participant observation which included site visits, photo-ethnography, and interviews. Surveys, library research, and content analyses were also conducted to supplement this research as part of my overall FRGS project. My study found that in Petaling Street, there are two forms of cultural heritage preservation - firstly, the adaptive reuse of historical buildings; and secondly – the continued use of a historical building. The former consists of heritage-style hipster cafes and locales; while the latter is manifested in the sustenance of a Chinese clan association, Chan See Shu Yuen Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (CSSYKL). The former has been rejuvenated to feed a hipster aesthetic as well as to attract tourists from around the world. Meanwhile, CSSYKL is made up not only of tangible cultural heritage through its century-old building, but also organic intangible cultural heritage which is its Cantonese clan association membership and its practices. Thus, it is apparent that the Asian-based community participation approach to cultural heritage preservation functions in two ways - first, the preservation of tangible and intangible forms of cultural heritage for the benefit of clan association members as well as for tourism purposes; and secondly to fulfil market demand.

Planning and Functional-Spatial Transformation of the City of Szczecin in Period from 2nd Half of 19th to 21st Century, Remedial Suggestions

In the last century, Szczecin underwent three major planning and urban transformations. These transformations were resulting of historical, system-political, economical-economic and social factors. The aim of the current study is to present the stages of functional and spatial changes of Szczecin during the last century, together with an indication of their causes and their effects. At the same time, guidelines will be proposed for the recovery program aimed at enabling further cohesive development of the city while maintaining its identity. This is particularly important in the context of the deepening spatial disorder in the city. The first stage of intense development of Szczecin was initiated in 1873 by the decision to liquidate the fortifications surrounding the city, which allowed for quick expansion of the city area and development of post-fortress areas according to plans established in 1874. In 1912, a new spatial development plan was approved, which was implemented successively. As a result, parts of the city were created with different functions and character: industrial, workers, residences of middle and upper class, etc. The provisions of the plan included the issues of maintaining spatial order and establishing green areas. The next stage of spatial transformations was triggered by the huge destruction of World War II. Along with the annexation of German Szczecin by Poland, a new direction in the history of the city’s development was initiated. The continuation of pre-war plans was abandoned, while new guidelines were established based on Soviet experience in shaping housing developments. The space left by destroyed town houses was occupied by large-panel housing estates, the spatial layout of which did not, in most cases, continue the former building lines. The estates were designed according to the newly adopted indicators and guidelines, and their structure and management was based on the idea of a “neighbourhood unit”. Decisions made in the 1950s and 1960s irrevocably damaged the historical structure and character of the city before World War II. After 1989, the city of Szczecin is undergoing another planning and urban transformation. The change in the political system of the Polish State resulted in subsequent changes to the land development plans. The slow process of adopting local zoning plans in the years 2000-2010 caused another chaos in the city space. According to the regulations, the newly created housing communities independently decided on the appearance of buildings and their surroundings, which leads to the urban space being de-urbanized. This is a contradiction of the city’s spatial policy adopted in the study of the conditions and direction for spatial development of Szczecin. The action that could help in solving the problems would be to divide the city into a number of zones independent of the administrative division. These zones would cover typologically similar areas of the city, such as a residential zone with predominant pre-war buildings, a zone with dominant buildings from 1945-1989, and a zone with buildings developed after 1989, industrial and post-industrial areas, areas for investments, etc. The study of conditions and direction of spatial development of Szczecin should contain separate guidelines for all zones, because each of them has specific conditions and priorities. It would be advisable to set up urban and architectural commissions consisting of specialists in various fields that would help in setting the guidelines.

Reawakening the World's Most Famous Office Building: Economics behind a Groundbreaking Energy Efficiency Retrofit

This case highlights a recent and important type of new sustainability project for existing buildings commonly referred to as an integrated energy retrofit (IER) project. Anthony Malkin of Malkin Holdings, owner of the Empire State Building (ESB), acknowledged the importance of making the existing building stock, particularly in New York City, more energy efficient, as it comprises a large part of the real estate in most cities. Taking a bold leadership position, Malkin vowed to make the ESB the most energy-efficient, sustainable, “green” pre-war office building through an IER project that examined several facets of the building's systems, operations, and tenant behaviors. In addition to making the ESB a green icon in Manhattan, Malkin also stated the importance of making the project transparent and economical so other pre-war buildings could copy the model. This case study examines in depth the process that Malkin Holdings underwent in attaining its goal of establishing the ESB as a leader in existing building sustainability.After discussing and analyzing the case, students should be able to: Understand how to balance costs and benefits associated with an IER project Explain the benefits of green retrofitting to owners and tenants Identify risks in high-profile, complex projects and recommend mitigation strategies

The property restitution in Warsaw: renaissance or decline of pre-war buildings?

This paper aimed to provide an understanding of the segment of pre-war buildings in Warsaw (Poland) and its position within the housing stock in the light of restitution of private properties. Although the majority of the buildings were destroyed during the Second World War, enclaves of the pre-war buildings still exist in the central districts of the capital city of Poland. The communalization of land in Warsaw in 1945 considerably reduced the proportion of private ownership. In the following years, the scarcity of funds for repairs and rehabilitation of the pre-war buildings contributed to their poor maintenance, resulting in worsening housing conditions. Since 1989, the political and economic transformation in Poland strengthened the privatization and paved the way to restitution of communalized properties to their previous private owners or their heirs. However, lack of law on property restitution and the complexity of groups of interest involved in this process (former private owners, “buyers of claims,” municipality and tenants) entail different tensions. In this way, the private owners struggle for years with restitution procedures, “buyers of claims” attempt to make profit on restitution, and sitting tenants defend their right to stay and to pay lower rents after the building is returned. Finally, the renaissance or decline of restituted pre-war residential buildings in Warsaw is strongly influenced by the type of existing ownership structure of individual dwellings in a building which may facilitate or hamper its refurbishment.

Legal Provision Allied to Conservation of Heritage Buildings in Penang

Heritage culture and building in Penang have become among value asset in Malaysia. George Town inner cities most treasure architecture are located and can divided into several zone, it culture has been moulded by the succession of civilization that arrive and shaped its urban growth. Heritage building in the inner city exposes the sense of compromise between the pioneers, earlier settlers and later immigrants. The significant heritage character of George Town, Penang is reflect upon the predominant pre war buildings, the heritage buildings dates back to between late eighteen century and early nineteenth century. This paper will consider on Penang as World Heritage City, the conservation of the buildings in Penang and also legal provision related to conservation of heritage buildings in Penang.