Volume 46, Issue 1

The problems and opportunities of post-war reconstruction in the UK are well demonstrated by the city of Birmingham, although what happened there is hardly typical of the country overall. The city was badly bombed, although damage was diffuse. Unusually, no formal ›reconstruction plan‹ was produced because city managers distrusted ›big plans‹, and because there were existing slum clearance plans and ring road aspirations. A new ring road and precinct developments dominated the rebuilt city centre, though the development process was slow and generated very mixed public responses. The architectural and urban forms created were also mixed, but concrete and brutalism reshaped the city’s image. Some of the buildings have not lasted well and were redeveloped after relatively short lives, and the technocentric, car-dominated approach has also failed, with sections of ring road also being redeveloped. This paper demonstrates that even a determined, single-minded approach to reconstruction takes decades to implement; and that changes in fashion and society may very quickly render that reconstruction obsolete

The article is an attempt at identifying the positive and negative effect the decisions to reconstruct monuments made immediately following the end of World War II and that of reconstructing Warsaw’s Royal Castle made 25 years after the war had on the perception of monuments and the historical value of the urban tissue. It is in this perspective that the reconstruction cases performed in Poland after 1989 (namely after the collapse of Communism) and their social impact are analyzed. The examples which are both negative: falsifying historical knowledge and insulting aesthetical criteria, as well as positive: manifesting high instructive values, are pointed to. Moreover, the question is asked how it is possible that in the 21 st century people are attracted to the idea of reconstructing monuments which were not destroyed in the course of World War II, but significantly earlier. In Poland, for instance, a political idea has been recently conceived to reconstruct several dozen mediaeval castles ruined in the 17 th century

Florence suffered heavy destruction due to blasting by the german Wehrmacht in the area around the Ponte Vecchio in 1944. On the question of how the historic, in the core medieval buildings should be rebuilt, a vigorous debate was ignited, which also was intensively conducted in public. The debates core was about the question of wether the old center should be reconstructed exactly as it was or should a modern and contemporary solution be given priority. The art historian Bernhard Berenson and the archeologist Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli exemplified the position in the debate for the Florentine context. Linked to this discussion was also the question, how Italy would present itself after war and fascism as a new and democratic society. The built result can be seen as a compromise of these positions, as the new architecture is added in the center emphasized inconspicuous Despite the consistently negative reception, it was possible to dissociate oneself in two respects from this locally located variety of post-war modernity: On the one hand, the international architectural scene and, on the other hand, its own architectural heritage which is contaminated by fascism. The reference to its own architectural heritage and the very independent appropriation of international influences should remain the basic characteristic of the »Scuola Fiorentina« until the mid-1970s

European architecture in the second-half of the 20 th century had many different roles to fulfil. Initially it sought to reconnect to what had been the ›modern style‹ before the outbreak of World War II, or rather, before the rise of National Socialism in Germany and Austria. This is true in a very special way for sacral architecture. After the human catastrophe of the Nazi regime with its destruction and desperation, all eyes were on the Church awaiting a statement. This was made not only through the erection of newly-built churches – in a density unique in the history of church building – but also in their contextual placement. The thesis of this article claims that the embedding of sacred rooms within newly-built architecture, such as in residential buildings, universities and student accommodation, is an ideal way of creating new – and hopefully better – societies based on a foundation of religious values

The coastal city Royan was destroyed in 1945 to 85% and was rebuild first of all by Claude Ferret and Louis Simon. The reconstruction of the city contributed significantly the formation of the modernism in the 1950’s. However, this avant-garde image did not express in the first projects, they still where in the continuity of the monumental architecture of the 1930’s. Only the revival of the architectural discourse at the end of the 1940’s led to a profound change in the urban and architectonic planning of the reconstruction, especially the publications of journals about the modern Brazilian architecture. Nowadays, the reconstructed city Royan is an example for the invention for a modern ›coastal style‹, balnéaire modern, which is also called ›1950s style‹ or style 50’. The process of reconstruction of this small resort proves to be an extraordinary object of research about the significance of culture and role models as part of every creative urban and architectural process.