Murawski, M;
(2017)
Radical Centres: The Political Morphology of Monumentality in Warsaw and Johannesburg.
Third Text
, 33
(1)
pp. 26-42.
10.1080/09528822.2016.1275188.
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Abstract
This article compares and contrasts two monumental architectural ensembles: Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown, Johannesburg, opened in 2005 by President Thabo Mbeki; and The Palace of Culture and Science, a Stalinist skyscraper ‘gifted’ to Warsaw by the Soviet Union in 1955. This architectural juxtaposition serves as the point of departure for the article's two, interconnected key themes: an inquiry into the complex continuities and contradictions between the political and economic reconfigurations experienced by South Africa after 1994 and Poland after 1989; and an exploration into what the author defines as the ‘political morphology’ of monumental architecture. The bulk of the article is concerned with a critical investigation into how scholars conceive of the relationship between the morphological (spatial, geometric and aesthetic) characteristics of built form, and their political or economic correlates. Must there be – as the scholarly consensus suggests – an intrinsic connection between democracy and architectural humility, and between authoritarianism and monumentality?
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Radical Centres: The Political Morphology of Monumentality in Warsaw and Johannesburg |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09528822.2016.1275188 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2016.1275188 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Michal Murawski, Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, The Palace of Culture and Science, Kliptown, Warsaw, Johannesburg, Cities, Architecture, Centrality, Monumentality, Political Morphology, Political Geometry, Socialism, Apartheid |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > SSEES |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10057699 |
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