Paper Short Abstract:

This paper explores the enduring legacy of socialist modernist architecture in Cluj-Napoca, with a focus on the Gheorgheni and Mărăști districts. It examines how the architectural and urban planning approaches shaped community dynamics, environmental perceptions, and the aesthetic identity of the city.

Paper Abstract:

Cluj-Napoca’s urban landscape bears the imprint of extensive socialist modernist interventions, particularly visible in districts such as Gheorgheni and Mărăști.

Constructed primarily between the 1960s and 1980s, Gheorgheni district embodies the socialist ideal of functional, collective living spaces surrounded by greenery. Featuring high-rise apartment blocks, open green spaces, and modernist commercial and educational buildings, Gheorgheni aimed to balance urban density with the socialist vision of communal well-being. Yet, these architectural transformations also disrupted traditional urban forms, altering social interactions and local identity.

This presentation delves into the dual legacy of these developments: while they provided much-needed housing and public services, issues like inconsistent maintenance, unsupervised renovations, and architectural improvisations have eroded their visual and functional coherence. The presentation will also explore how these spaces have adapted (or failed to adapt) to post-socialist transformations, becoming sites of contested heritage and eco-social debates.

Another significant socialist modernist district in Cluj-Napoca is the Mărăști neighborhood, built on the site of the Hóstát district. This area, likely inhabited by German settlers, served as the city’s vegetable gardens before ten-story apartment blocks mushroomed across the landscape.

By situating Cluj-Napoca’s case within broader post-war European urbanism, the presentation highlights the dynamics between authority, societal forces, and the built environment, enriching the comparative discourse on socialist and capitalist urban transformations. The research underscores the importance of integrating architectural, sociological, and environmental perspectives to understand the legacies of 20th-century urban planning.