Search

The article is based on the original manuscript materials and documents of the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering of the exile Baltic University (Baltische Universität), which operated in Hamburg and Pinneberg from 1946 to 1949. The Faculty of Architecture of the Baltic University was a unique establishment in exile where Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian refugees came together to maintain their architectural education. The documents (four boxes and one roll of papers) were discovered at the Manuscript Collection of the Uppsala University Library marked as “Lettiska Fonden” and were unknown to architectural historians up to this date. This common Baltic tangible and intangible architectural heritage is a unique source for discovering and understanding the destiny of Baltic architects in exile in times of geopolitical crisis.

Housing modernization played one of the most important roles in the modernization processes of interwar European cities. In this context, the development of housing in Vilnius, which belonged to Poland in 1919–1939, is researched. The research is based on the theory of “housing-based urban planning” developed by Yael Allweil and Noa Zemer. This theory conceives urban structure and urban housing as one single problem rather than disconnected realms of planning. Based on new findings and revised study of available sources, three planning processes by which policy makers, planners, and dwellers in Vilnius (Wilno) engaged in this housing-based urban vision are investigated: (1) the city as a housing problem; (2) the city as social utility for reform and reconstruction; and (3) housing-based urbanisation as self-help. The result is a new historiographic perspective on Vilnius’ modern urbanism focusing on the planning and construction of new housing.

The focus of this paper is how the Soviet architectural award system from the 1960s to the 1980s functioned in relation to the industrialisation of housing and planning for new types of residential units such as the mikroraion(large housing estate) in urban environments and kolkhoz(collective farm) settlements in rural areas. Despite the importance attached to mass housing declared by the Communist Party in 1955, the Soviet Union’s most prestigious state award, the Lenin Prize, was only ever conferred upon two model sites: the Lazdynai large housing estate in Vilnius, Lithuania, in 1974, and the Juknaičiai soviet farm village in south-western Lithuania in 1988. The paper seeks to address several questions: What role did official awards play in the context of Soviet mass housing and new settlement planning ideology? How and why were certain (Baltic) sites selected and awarded? What aspects played a major role in both professional acknowledgment and the fulfilment of ideological requirements? The research is based on material held by the Russian State Archives for Literature and Arts in Moscow (RGALI), the Lithuanian National State Archives (LCVA), interviews with architects in Lithuania, and an overview of the contemporary Soviet press.

SantraukaŽvelgiant į moderniosios architektūros vertinimą ir apsaugą šiuolaikinėje Lietuvoje, galima pastebėti, kad LR kultūros vertybių registre išties yra nemažai šio laikotarpio objektų. Tačiau kalbant apie jų verčių identifikavimą ir perteikimą visuomenei susiduriama su dideliu informacijos trūkumu, nes Lietuvoje nėra atliekami sistemingi moderniosios architektūros paveldo tyrimai, o paveldosaugoje nėra šio paveldo interpretacinio diskurso. Siekiant išsiaiškinti, kodėl moderniosios architektūros pastatai ir kompleksai yra (turi būti) saugomi, kam jie atstovauja ir ką „pasakoja“, tyrime pateikiamas teorinis svarstymas apie Lietuvos moderniosios architektūros vertes, analizuojama paveldo atrankos ir apskaitos situacija. Straipsnyje chronologiniu, estetiniu ir tipologiniu požiūriu apžvelgiamas Lietuvos moderniosios architektūros paveldas, diskutuojama terminologijos klausimu.