Welcome to our online store!
You have no items in your basket.
Close
Filters
Search

The Palace Complex: A Stalinist Skyscraper, Capitalist Warsaw, and a City Transfixed

Author/EditorMurawski, Michal (Author)
ISBN: 9780253039965
Pub Date22/03/2019
BindingPaperback
Pages366
Dimensions (mm)229(h) * 152(w)
The Palace of Culture and Science is a massive Stalinist skyscraper that was "gifted" to Warsaw by the Soviet Union in 1955. Author Michal Murawski traces the skyscraper's powerful impact on 21st century Warsaw, exploring the many factors that allow Warsaw's Palace to endure as a still-socialist building in a post-socialist city.
£36.00
excluding shipping
Availability: Available to order but dispatch within 7-10 days
+ -

The Palace of Culture and Science is a massive Stalinist skyscraper that was "gifted" to Warsaw by the Soviet Union in 1955. Framing the Palace's visual, symbolic, and functional prominence in the everyday life of the Polish capital as a sort of obsession, locals joke that their city suffers from a "Palace of Culture complex." Despite attempts to privatize it, the Palace remains municipally owned, and continues to play host to a variety of public institutions and services. The Parade Square, which surrounds the building, has resisted attempts to convert it into a money-making commercial center. Author Michal Murawski traces the skyscraper's powerful impact on 21st century Warsaw; on its architectural and urban landscape; on its political, ideological, and cultural lives; and on the bodies and minds of its inhabitants. The Palace Complex explores the many factors that allow Warsaw's Palace to endure as a still-socialist building in a post-socialist city.

The Palace of Culture and Science is a massive Stalinist skyscraper that was "gifted" to Warsaw by the Soviet Union in 1955. Framing the Palace's visual, symbolic, and functional prominence in the everyday life of the Polish capital as a sort of obsession, locals joke that their city suffers from a "Palace of Culture complex." Despite attempts to privatize it, the Palace remains municipally owned, and continues to play host to a variety of public institutions and services. The Parade Square, which surrounds the building, has resisted attempts to convert it into a money-making commercial center. Author Michal Murawski traces the skyscraper's powerful impact on 21st century Warsaw; on its architectural and urban landscape; on its political, ideological, and cultural lives; and on the bodies and minds of its inhabitants. The Palace Complex explores the many factors that allow Warsaw's Palace to endure as a still-socialist building in a post-socialist city.

Michal Murawski is Assistant Professor in Critical Area Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London.

Preface: Politicized Perambulations Introduction: Palace Complex/Complex Palace 1. The Planners: Conceiving the Palace Complex 2. Public Spirit, or the Gift of Noncapitalism 3. Designing Architectural Power: Scale, Style and Location 4. Site-Specific: Varsovian Interpretations of the Palace 5. Varsovianization: The Palace Complex After 1989 6. "The Center of the Very Center" 7. The Extraordinary Palace Conclusion: Complex Appropriations Epilogue: The Still-Socialist Palace and the War Against Post-Communism Appendix: Palaceological Survey: Summary of Results Bibliography Index

Write your own review
  • Only registered users can write reviews
*
*
Bad
Excellent
*
*
*
Close
)
CLOSE