THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION OF POSTWAR HOUSING NEIGHBORHOODS IN POLAND AND THE NETHERLANDS

MAGDALENA MOSTOWSKA

The concept of the neighborhood unit was based on modernist ideals for dealing with the housing problems and contribution of architecture in social policy. The neighborhood was to become a basic residential unit in the functionally designed city, self-sufficient in terms of child care, elementary education and indispensable social and commercial infrastructure. The units were rationally planned and separated from the surrounding quarters. After the IIWW due to the increased state intervention in planning, architects gained a chance to implement the neighborhood ideal on a mass scale. However the socio-political contexts in the East and West of Europe were divergent, same principle for enhancing social activities and community cohesion was applied. Neighborhood’s spatial structure and architecture is analyzed on the case of Mokotów in Warsaw. This example is compared with the Pendrecht neighborhood in Rotterdam. Much larger scale of the Dutch unit was a consequence of different infrastructure priorities and religious composition of the Dutch society. The principle of planning in both countries was based on the same idea for hierarchical division of nested smaller units, rational structure, spatial identity but also enhancing residents activities in neighborhood’s associations. Implementation of the neighborhood ideal helped to considerably improve housing conditions in postwar cities. Nevertheless the anticipations for enhancing social cohesion and residents’ bonds largely fell short.