Radical Centres

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.Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Third text 2019-01, Vol.33 (1), p.26
Main Author: Murawski, Michal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Architecture
Authoritarianism
Democracy
High rise buildings
Mbeki, Thabo
Morphology
Politics
Sisulu, Walter
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Summary: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?
ISSN:0952-8822
DOI:10.1080/09528822.2016.1275188