Mass Housing, Late Modernism, and the Forging of Community in New York City and East Berlin, 1965–1989

Abstract

BOIS OUTSIDE PARIS to Zahradn ı M esto-v ychod outside Prague, and from Singapore's Toa Payoh to Rio de Janiero's Realengo, mass-produced modernist high-rise housing estates span the globe. For decades these housing developments stood as iconic symbols of the failure of social engineering. 1 In recent years, however, modernist mass housing has had a revival of sorts. Architectural and cultural historians have explored the variety of its manifestations around the globe. 2 Historians of Eastern Europe have discovered a vibrant array of modern architectural experiments that echoed, but did not imitate, their Western counterparts. 3 The transnational culture of borrowing and exchange that marked modernism's heyday has been a further subject of historical inquiry. 4 Motivated in part by nostalgia for his For their thorough and thought-provoking feedback, I thank Robert Schneider, the board of the American Historical Review, and the anonymous reviewers who read this manuscript and improved it immeasurably at every stage. I also thank Eli Rubin, Peter Eisenstadt, Suleiman Osman, and Geoff Eley for their extremely helpful comments. Finally, I thank the residents of Marzahn and Co-op City who shared their stories with me. Research for this article was supported by grants and fellowships from Oberlin College, the University of Michigan, and the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst.

The New Socialist Man in the Plattenbau: The East German Housing Program and the Development of the Socialist Way of Life

“…However, in New York, this developed in confrontation with Jacobs, while in East Germany, planners sought to find a synthesis between modernism and new urbanism. 6 The socialist Kiez, or neighborhood, that East German planners sought to construct was holistic and intensely politicized. But these planners were also sensitive to the need to construct lively and vibrant neighborhoods.…”