L’articolazione dello spazio pubblico nella città post-socialista. I quartieri residenziali di periferia a Sofia tra progetti di riqualificazione e trasformazione bottom-up

Abstract

The present work aims to explore the transformation of public space in East European cities after the fall of the Soviet Bloc. The choice of peripheral neighbourhoods as case study is dictated by two factors. Firstly, the urban peripheral areas embody the disarticulated distribution of public space in the socialist city, which abandons the traditional concept of agorà as a focal point of urban life. Secondly, because the communist ideal of the abolition of classes and social inequality is reflected in the standardized building of prefabricated panels adopted by Soviet architects in the period after WWII for the creation of new housing estates. The politics of planning and organisation of physical spaces in some peripheral neighbourhoods of Sofia and Bratislava in the post-socialist period will be compared. The major phenomena of transformation of public space in the former Soviet Bloc during the transition years following 1989 are also analysed. Finally, an attempt is made to answer the question whether the so called democratic process and the transformation of the forma urbis has been favourable or not, in both quantitative and qualitative terms, to public life in the post-socialist city.

Keywords

• periphery
• post-socialism
• public space
• social identity
• urban politics
• identità sociale
• periferia
• politiche urbane
• post-socialismo
• spazio pubblico