Anna Petelenz
Housing Environment, 40/2022, 2022, pp. 67-83
https://doi.org/10.4467/25438700SM.22.024.17006Revolutionary changes after Second Vatican Council – in particular the renewal of the liturgy – resulted in a variety of forms and spatial solutions in sacred architecture. In contemporary urban layouts, they do not play a dominant role. Authors analyze selected sacred spaces regarding their composition in urban structures, focusing on their universalism, legibility in a symbolic dimension, as well as spatial expression combining elements of tradition and modernity. As a case study, authors present selected examples of European churches built after 2000.
Anna Petelenz
Housing Environment, 27/2019, 2019, pp. 71-83
https://doi.org/10.4467/25438700SM.19.021.10952Brazil. Favelas and Oscar Niemeyer’s perfectionist buildings. A terra incognita and an idea. In its Brazilian interpretation, cosmopolitan modernism became an exciting, local “Brazilian modernism”, one that combines native characteristics with universal ones. Despite this, alien and untamed spaces have also become a legacy of the idea of modernism, while favelas have become a social alternative. Torn and inconsistent areas have been created, areas of affluence and poverty, creating spaces for living that are replete with extremes. Municipal authorities are making attempts at reclaiming key areas, and projects have included functional and spatial analyses as well as attempts at restructuring them through local actions.
Anna Petelenz
Technical Transactions, Volume 6 Year 2019 (116), 2019, pp. 49-62
https://doi.org/10.4467/2353737XCT.19.060.10613A glass pyramid, a sphinx and a Medieval Excalibur, an Eiffel tower, a Statue of Liberty, a Ponte Rialto with an escalator and a canal sailed by gondolas with Mickey Mouse – these are the faces of Las Vegas. Kitsch, excess and chaos are concepts that form the universe of the semantics of Las Vegas. We can also attempt to understand this identity, distinct both in its unbridled form and the ideas represented by the city, by referring to Bakhtin's concept of the carnival.