Today Bucharest is mainly perceived through the massive social housing developments from the Ceaucescu dictatorship. Their esthetics and living conditions are commonly related to socialist modernism, industrial modernization, and the regulatory rationalities of modernism.
But the power of the straight line (always superior to the curve in modernism) is already broken by the confusion of curved facades, cultural artifacts, and antimodern/ postmodern styles of the boulevards adjunct to the peoples palace. These housing projects are challenging the notion and understanding of modernism/ postmodernism in the architectural and urban history of Bucharest.
From 25th to 29th of May 2005, architects, urbanists, sociologists, artists, students and cultural producers will investigate, negotiate and research that particular shift in perception of historic/ contemporary Bucharest urban conditions through workshops, public screenings, lectures and symposium.
