MSc1 Architettura sociale. Lecture by Anna Bokov

MSc1 Social Architecture 
Professor: Sonja Hildebrand, assistant: Frida Grahn

Lecture 

Anna Bokov 
Lessons from the Social Condensers: Concepts of Collectivity from Workers’ Clubs to Communal Housing

Wednesday, May 3, 2023, 1.30-3.05 pm
Canavée, classroom C0.63

Coined by Soviet architects in the 1920s, the term ‘social condenser’ came to signify the agency of architecture not only in shaping individual behaviors but also in reforming society at large. The buildings and projects conceived according to these ideas, that range from structures for public assembly to those for communal living, are some of the earliest radical architectural experiments of the modern movement. The lecture explores the broad reach of early Soviet social condensers, from workers’ clubs to workers’ housing, spread from Europe to Siberia. These projects serve as precedents for how architecture can activate social interaction but also as a cautionary tale of utilizing architecture as an instrument of social control. Once considered revolutionary, these spatial ideas have informed numerous innovative contemporary practices and have been assimilated into mainstream culture, from collaborative corporate spaces to institutional settings and innovative housing solutions.

Anna Bokov is an architect, historian, and educator. She holds a Ph.D. from Yale University and an M. Arch from Harvard Graduate School of Design. She teaches at the Cooper Union and Parsons in New York. 

Lecture
MSc1 Social Architecture 
Professor: Sonja Hildebrand
Assistant: Frida Grahn