A socialist city can be identified by its unique structure and form. Typically, this recognition is characterized by the rigid built order, the Soviet mass housing block. As this phenomenon can be found in multiple cities all over the former USSR, it is evident, that the political ideology has manifested itself not only in constrained collectivism, the standardization of life but also in its built environment. The ‘living machine’ has influenced millions of people ́s lives and is one of the most significant built urban design plans. Even though the political ideologies varied and can be detected in more detail within the Soviet architecture, the mutual aim was to raise the collective for example by abolishing private ownership of property and land. Although this attempt was to do justice to the rank and file, it also expressed itself in suppressed individualism and monotony. Thus, the regnant symbolic order was able to enter people ́s way of living on all different levels, it has not been able to penetrate unrestrained, adducing people ́s sexuality for example.

This raises the question if the symptomatic phenomenon of ‘individualism’ also articulates itself somewhere in the built environment of the Soviet Union? And if so, would it be possible to identify a socialist city by another form, that has been ignored or avoided, as it is defying the order it is embedded in?

This thesis focuses in 282 pages on the impact of the changing political ideologies on the form of the socialist city of ‘Dnipro’ in Ukraine and how their symbolic order raises a symptomatic phenomenon, which was conducted during the survey of this case study. Within the first chapters, the reader will get an overview of the historical development of Ukraine and Dnipro. Then the methodology, how the city was examined is described, introducing a chronological catalog of the urban-dwelling artifact.

To get a better understanding of political systems, the thesis subsequently contemplates the rise of ideology and how the psychoanalysis of Freud, complemented by Lacan and Zizek can be used to describe the symbolic order of the Soviet Union and the symptom it produces.

How this distinct role of the Soviet order manifested itself in its architecture, is then evaluated and perceived how it gives rise to its inadvertent symptom. To conclude, the novel type is introduced and invites the reader to simply: Enjoy!

A protected market place connected to the UN Women compound, consisting of workshops, childcare, social areas, and retail spaces. The female population is under-represented on the Za’atari job market, so the Women's Bazaar will be a safe space for working and social activities. The architecture and spatial organization of the retail area function both as a protective barrier and link with the public market street. Architectural elements reflect the origins of most of the Za’atari population. The construction system is scaleable, assembling into different spatial configurations.

1st price winner

This biotronical garden installation interacts with the sounds of the surrounding - inflates interdependent sound cycles of pneumatic systems that resonances on its own membrane and thus creates a responding interactive sound system.

chosen to eabiennale prague 2013