Autoportret 13. Blokowiska

-- unwanted heritage. what to do with blocks of flats? / agnieszka wolodzko
Some of the most noticeable remains of the Polish People's Republic are huge, concrete housing estates. Everything started in 1933, when the International Architects Association issued the Athens Charter - a set of principles that architects should follow. Although initially they were put into effect, these noble ideas, gradually degenerated, taking the most vulgar form in the countries of East Block. How to cope with this heritage?

-- le corbusier - between utopia and reality. a brief history of the block of flats / jaroslaw trybus
A river of new dwellers flowed into the 19 century cities. They were getting more and more congested, filled with high-density buildings, there was less and less light, greenery and space in the city. One of the ideas how to remedy the situation was building blocks of flats - comfortable, spacious, surrounded with greenery, providing access to sunlight. Today, we know that this idea could not be put into practice, but new attempts are still being made. Perhaps it is unwise to take leave of blocks of flats yet?

-- we have forgotten how to live, the influence of the housing estate on the perception of social norms / vladimir czumalo, jir junek
Housing estates are a troublesome legacy of the 20* century. Are the only things we can say about them that they uprooted people, made social relations accidental and unnatural, enhanced collectivism and deprived people of conveniences? The author persuades us that the outcome is not unequivocal. Stating our objections to the idea of blocks of flats will not do, we should also think about how to revitalize them.

-- modernising modernism. the participating architecture in an old housing estate / beata joanna gawryszewska
Walking through a housing estate, you can notice numerous mini-gardens and flower beds, carefully cultivated by the residents. Often very pretty, they are a sign of yearning for familiar, friendly space. If the residents start organizing their surroundings, why not invite them to the process of community planning? The idea of participating architecture stemmed from the need of filling alienated cities with "spirit".

-- a tale of the real world. hip hop subculture / tucja piekarska-duraj
If you want to know what it is like to live on a housing estate, what kind of problems its residents have, what their world looks like - you should listen to "ziomale" ("blockmates") singing hip hop. This kind of music is only about what is authentic, what refers to "our" housing estate, "our district or city. There is no room for abstraction and generalization in it - the crucial thing is to find your own "here" and "now".
You will not read such a clear account of life anywhere else.

-- living safely the dutch way. a community against crime / krzysztof kwatkowski, king racon-leja
Dangerous housing estates are not only a Polish specialty. The Dutch also face that problem. To solve it, they have decided to use public participation, a very popular notion in Holland. The programme "To live safely" popularizes architectural solutions and promotes residents' participation in supervising their dwelling place. Learning the rules of the project enables us to understand what makes a housing estate safe.

-- looking for a safe housing estate. krakow - nowy biezanow experiment / kinga racon-leja, krzysztoftkowsk kwiai
A night walk through a housing estate usually involves considerable risk: you never know if you will not come across a group of local football fans or just hooligans. This is Krakow's Biezanow district - a typical product of the housing estate architecture of 1970's. But despite this fact, Biezanow is the place where local anti-crime initiatives have come into existence. A youth club "Dziupla" has been set up, residents are strengthening neighbourly bonds, architects and sociologists have researched which places are the most dangerous and what to do to change this situation. The interesting experiment has just started. Good luck!

-- our staircase is wonderful. the good neighborhood / dominika dido
A staircase is usually associated with a place where sad, gloomy-faced people pass each other by in a hurry, exchanging a casual "Good morning" at most. However, blocks of flats where residents do like each other really exist and, what is more, they form a good neighbourly community. But, on the other hand, do the cases quoted by the author prove that housing estate residents are destined to be alienated?

-- a housing estate means the present day. housing estates in the cinema / agnieszka szeffel
It is not easy to show a housing estate in the cinema, because it involves not only the buildings themselves, but also thier residents, and, more generally, the human condition. Antonioni, in "The Eclipse" and Kieslowski in "The Decalogue" have succeeded in this. The former showed how the spacial structure determines human activities, while the other director proved that idividual, deeply experienced, real people's stories underlie anonymity, repetitiveness, insensibility.

-- city speaking. notices in the urban space / anna chudzik
Not only people, streets and buildings are the city's pride, but also all sorts of notices: shop signs, ostentatious bilboards, information boards written in the official language, advertisements on fences and bill-posts, graffiti painted on walls. On the one hand, they organize our world, and on the other, they make it familiar to us. And they tell us a bit about what we are like: well-balanced or clamorous, aesthetical or shoddy, open to others or withdrawn.

-- "blokowidta" by miron biatoszewski, or poem therapy / elzbieta rybicka
Miron Bialoszewski - unconventional poet and individualist in a block of flats? In 1975 he unwillingly moved to a suburban housing estate.
His discerning eye, "sensitivity to everything" and ability to pick up "particles of joy" in his environment led to the transformation of the block of flats ennui into genuine literature. The poet got especially interested in a special kind of human relations there. What did he mean by "blocking"?