Historical allotments and proximity communities

Historical allotments and proximity communities
Or how to inform 15.000 residents of Bucharest
on the history of their allotment

text: Andrei Răzvan Voinea, Irina Calotă

The concept
The current project is part of a broader initiative, conceived and implemented starting with 2012 and initially focusing on the history of the Communal Society for Cheap Housing (1910-1948) and the Building Office (1930-1949). According to the acts of establishment, both institutions aimed at building houses for the working class and for the poor population of the capital in general. First of all, we sought to understand the history of the building process and how the dwellings were assigned to the beneficiaries, as well as the conditionings generating the adoption of these measures, the way in which the two institutions elaborated their operative policy and the extent in which the state took full responsibility for these steps as part of the housing policies implemented during the first half of the 20th century. The difficulties encountered in these enterprises - with the most important being the absence of the archive of the Communal Society for Cheap Housing - made the entire research activity turn into an extremely laborious work, frequently hindered by bureaucratic difficulties. Fortunately, the archive of the Building Office survived, but it was not allowed for research until 2016. Given these limitations, we deemed it necessary to include in the research, from the very beginning, interviews with the residents of the allotments as they represented an important auxiliary information source.
Ever since the beginning, a strict academic research and disseminating our findings in the form of articles and scientific reports seemed too restrictive to us. Beyond the academic importance of the initiative, we raised the issue of its utility at a broader level. Apart from the academic environment, who else can benefit from the history of the city and architecture and why? What is the social role of such enterprises appealing to the wide audience? What is the most accessible form for a general public that is not necessarily interested in specialized academic products? Concurrently, we set out to avoid nostalgically hued approaches which indiscriminately idealize historical accomplishments or are limited to presenting the current degradation state of the historical buildings as a form of criticism towards contemporary indifference.
As of 2012, we have been writing a column on LiterNet.ro (De locuit și povestit/ To Live and To Tell)where we published, twice a month, articles on the allotments made by the Communal Society (and other topics). The content of the articles reflects an approach we also took with respect to other research products that are grounded on archive sources and oral history alike. However, also in reply to the above-mentioned questions, we tried to avoid turning the online environment into the main means of communication. The reason why we did this is the fact that we deem this environment to be limitative - without denying its evident information dissemination capacity - as it does not guarantee the information published online will reach our target audience (the residents of the allotments). Therefore, taking into account that we wanted our information to reach a well-defined group, we concluded that a more direct approach would be more suitable.
The idea of the project started from acknowledging that academic research rarely reaches the inhabitants of the capital and very few are familiar with the story of the place where they live. This lack of information - which we could call collective amnesia - should not be blamed on the inhabitants since the situation is easily accountable through historic arguments.
First, the houses are sometimes over 100 years old and sheltered, on average, three generations (in the cases when the edifices were not conveyed to different inhabitants). Thus, the time elapsed from the moment of construction becomes both too long for us to expect the survival of history in the collective memory and too short for their value to be easily identified by the majority of population, especially in the context in which, most of the times, it is about modest ensembles or architecturally average buildings. Their value consists precisely in the ensemble layout, which is increasingly harder to identify due to contemporary interventions.

Secondly, the Communal Society was dissolved in 1948, the Building Office in 1949, and their traces disappeared over the time. Furthermore, the houses were partially nationalized, both aspects hindering the preservation of a common memory.
Thirdly, over the past decades, many of the houses were sold, given their relatively good quality and state of conservation. Numerous architects and historians accuse the residents of ignorance and indifference towards the city’s architectural, urbanistic and historic values without actually contributing to the dissemination of knowledge accumulated scientifically in the non-academic environments.
As a cumulated effect of the above-mentioned facts, very few residents of the allotments are acquainted with the history of the place where they live. During the six years of research, we interviewed several hundreds of people living in the approximately 4.000 houses built by these two state institutions. None of the interviewed knew the names of architects Ioan D. Trajanescu, Dimitrie Mohor, Ioan Țărușeanu or D. Ionescu, who designed, collectively, almost 4.000 houses for the Communal Society. Similarly,not even the director engineers of the Society live in the memory of posterity for such names as Andrei G. Ioachimescu, N. I. Georgescu or D. Stoica are unknown to the residents. Only the residents of Vatra Luminoasă allotment mentioned the name of architects Ioan Hanciu, Neculai Aprihăneanu and P. Smântănescu, but their memory endured only because they lived in the allotment a few decades after its completion. Rarely have the inhabitants mentioned the year of construction of the house or the allotment, the only recurrently recalled terms were „cheap housing” or „proletarian housing” (the latter was used with respect to the Building Office, in Vatra Luminoasa allotment). Many authored buildings in the city – designed by renowned architects like Tiberiu Niga, George Damian, Gheorghe Simotta e.a. - display on their façades the signatures of their creators. Such practices were not common in the case of the buildings erected by the Communal Society or the Building Office - nobody claimed the authorship of the projects in standard housing allotments, thus further deterring the transfer of such information from generation to generation. Similarly, out of the almost 4.000 houses, only one (in Ana Davila allotment) bears an inscription showing the year of construction (1915) on its façade.
The keepers of the memory of the houses and the area they inhabit are the elder residents of the neighbourhoods. They are, however, joined by a small (yet ever increasing) number of young people responsive to the history of the city and its architectural-urbanistic values. We dwelt on the interest of these groups and hoped that, with the help of information, we will be able to project these qualities unto the other residents. Consequently, the stake of the project consists precisely in disseminating historical information to a wide audience and helping create an architectural and historical culture among the residents for we are confident that the information exchange between the academic environment and the residents can contribute to the creation of new possibilities of conservation for the historical, architectural and urbanistic attributes of the city. Also, the residents brought up a series of aspects missing from the archives: daily life in the allotments, the famous people who lived there (especially after 1945), details on the architecture and the refittings carried out in the last decades, how the 1977 earthquake affected the buildings, the original allotment layouts and much more. Thus, we complemented the narrative based on archives and documents with these memories in order to obtain an analysis as complex as possible.
The idea of supporting an initiative directly addressing the capital’s residents comes under the latest cultural tendencies - many institutions and organizations are sponsoring various events like guided tours, exhibitions or lectures on the history of the city destined for a wide audience. The novelty of our project lies in the increased accessibility of the information by minimising the influence of all external factors - the information is distributed directly and its access does not involve any efforts from the residents.
As a result, we wrote about the history of the 25 allotments built by the Society for Cheap Housing between 1910 and 1948 and the allotments made by the Romanian Railways and the Building Office in the same period, printed it in accessible formats (leaflets, brochures) and placed them in the post office boxes of the families living in these allotments. We estimate that these houses shelter 4.000 families, which is a public of approximately 15.000 residents. The informative materials contain data on the history of the allotment, as well as epoch photographs, plans and other archive documents. The information comprised in these leaflets can be valorised by historians and architects in the form of historical studies for different on-site interventions and are in the possession of the neighbourhood residents. We placed leaflets in the post office boxes, we held history classes on the streets of the neighbourhood and we organized an exhibition at the Romanian Railways Museum, where we invited all the residents of the allotments. Many recognized their houses in the interwar photographs and complemented our narrative by sending us images from their personal archives and inviting us to visit their houses.

Information campaigns 2015-2017
In 2015, we drew up the first six informative leaflets for the allotments in Grant, Viilor, Șerban-Vodă (listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments), Steaua, Grivița Roșie (at the intersection of Feroviarilor and Lainici Streets) and Inginerilor (C. Dissescu and P. Țărușanu Streets) distributed them in autumn. What was specific to this first campaign was our focus on several allotments where the residents’ professional identity (except for Șerban-Vodă, all the allotments were destined for railway workers) overlaps the urban one (Grivița-Pieptănari). In the autumn of the same year, we also organized an exhibition at the Romanian Railway Museum („Cefere_știi București”/ Railway Bucharest) and all the residents of the railway allotments were invited to the varnishing day. They supplemented the information on display with their own memories and photographs and found out, in exchange, facts they did not know, taken from archive research: who were the builders, engineers and architects who made the allotment, the exact years of construction, excerpts from the newspapers of the time etc. The event enjoyed a numerous audience who saw our enterprise as a recuperation of history. The exhibition was later moved to SNSPA - The National School of Political Science and Public Administration (an academic space familiar with the study of contemporary urbanity); at present, it is partially on display at Grivița Library.
During our research in Grivița neighbourhood we discovered the memorial plate placed in 1953 on the fence of the former Grivița railway workshops and commemorating the 1933 strike; the building is regarded as one of the so-called ”lieux de mémoire” (”memory places”) of the communists, a place included in the tourist guidebooks and a popular objective during the foreign delegations’ official visits prior to 1989. After 1990, the plate was coated in plaster and it remained like this until last year, when the residents of Grivița signalled its presence to us. During a tour held in February 2016, we told the participants about its existence and, as a result, in February 2017, the plaster coating was removed and the plate was revealed. Similar plates are listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments (the plate on 69 Mitropolit Grigore Street and 34 Școala Floreasca Street) and this raises the issue of its potential classing. However, this status does not guarantee its protection as rendered evident by the two above-mentioned (listed) examples: the plates did not survive to the present day - the one on Mitropolit Grigore Street was removed while the building on Școala Floreasca Street was entirely demolished.
In 2016, we continued our project and dealt with other allotments listed in the National Register of Historic Monuments: Raion, Iancului I and Iancului 2, Învoirii, Dorobanți Extension, Verzișori-Tăbăcari. After the distribution of leaflets and the hundreds of interviews taken on the streets of the allotment, the conclusion is alarming for those who take responsibility for protecting and classing these monuments: not even one of the interviewed was aware that the allotments are listed and that this entails certain rights and obligations. The details we provided represent a first step towards the residents’ understanding of the importance that the architects and historians who listed the allotment attached to that urban tissue. Surprisingly enough, the architects living in the allotment were no more familiar with this aspect and they refused to believe even when they checked the Register of Historic Monuments. This finding raises the issue of the utility of these listing procedures since neither the architects nor the residents realize or appreciate the architectural and historical value of these places and do not build in the spirit of its protection. What is more, the protection legislation does not currently dispose of the necessary instruments to literally shift the responsibility for the resulting appearance of these areas to public administration. What good is listing an entire allotment if the residents are unaware of this fact, have not been noticed about such listings and the state authorities control is absent? And even if it were present, the risk that the residents see this listing as a coercitive factor would be quite high, given they are not familiar with the architectural and historical particularities of the allotment.
In 2017, we completed the informative materials on all the allotments made by the Communal Society. We decided to distribute a set of 10 postcards in the areas of Rahova and Fabrica de Chibrituri, a common brochure for the two allotments in Cornescu and Drumul la Tei and leaflets in the other allotments (Sf. Vineri, Zablovschi, Drumul Sării and Calea Lacul Tei).
As for the smaller allotments, we concluded a partnership with the journal Magazin Istoricand published, over the course of one year, six articles, each of them detailing the history of an allotment. In August 2016, we published the first article on Lânăriei parcelling (the first standard housing parcelling carried out by the city hall as an experiment for those that were to be built by the Communal Society in 1909) and we distributed 30 copies, one for each family. We continued with Clucerului, Lupească (Sg. Nuțu Ion Street), Aron Mayer (Popeia and Rădiței Streets), Ana Davila and Ghencea (Ghencea Avenue, Antiaeriană Street, Vâlcele Street), totalling almost 300 copies.
During the information campaigns, we noticed that churches play a decisive part in neighbourhood life, especially in Grivița (St. George Church), Raion (St. Fanurie Church) and Grant (Belvedere Church). The leaflets distributed in these allotments also reached the churches archives and the priests provided us with many photographs and primary sources we have later used in the materials we elaborated.

The 2018 campaign
In 2018, the project centred on the activity of the Building Office, the institution that designed and executed Vatra Luminoasă and Independenței allotments (the latter is located on Eroilor Avenue - Sfântul Elefterie Street - Dr. Clunet Street - Eroilor Sanitari Avenue). The project began with a guided tour in Vatra Luminoasă allotment, organized in the evening of 23rd August (an important date in the history of the neighbourhood as Marshal Antonescu and his collaborators were held under arrest in one of the buildings exactly 74 years ago). The tour enjoyed the presence of more than 200 people, mainly residents of the neighbourhood.
This year, as regards the distribution in Vatra Luminoasă, we will experiment a slightly different approach from that of the previous years: we will create three different informative materials that will reach the residents during three consecutive distribution campaigns (15th September, 1st October and 15th October). The three brochures will look at three different themes: the first will comprise data on the Ministry of Labour and the Building Office, the second will focus on the design of the neighbourhood, the allotment and house plans while the third will provide details on daily life in the allotment. All the brochures will reach the over 700 families currently living in the area. In addition, in December we will also organize an exhibition centred on the Building Office and the residents are welcomed to contribute images and documents from their personal archives. In parallel with the project dedicated to the Building Office, we will publish the first book of the Association concentrating on the history of the Communal Society for Cheap Housing. The launch event will welcome all the residents of the allotments built by the Communal Society, the Building Office and the Romanian Railways as well as experts in the field.
Future events 2019-2020
In 2019 we will publish a book on the Building Office, organize an exhibition on the Communal Society for Cheap Housing and inaugurate a website dedicated to Bucharest allotments. Since the research is coming to an end and the information has already reached the residents of the allotments, we decided that the results of the project should be disseminated in the online environment as well. The same year we will also organize 5 guided tours: 16th February - Grivița, 23rd August - Vatra Luminoasă, 13th December - Grant, along with Iancului or Dristor, the largest allotments made by the Communal Society. All events aim at establishing an information exchange between the academic environment and the residents.

Criticism of the Society and a few conclusions
The specialized activity of the Communal Society for Cheap Housing and the Building Office should be neither ignored nor idealised. Both institutions made a series of mistakes, including disregarding the vulnerable classes in dire need of housing and promoting state officials, which led to a visible imbalance and a perpetual housing crisis. The Society tried to build houses for middle class representatives in the hope they will restitute the investment and build enough houses to shelter as many families as possible and the vulnerable population will eventually succeed in obtaining a house. This unsuccessful strategy led to the winding up of the Society in 1948 as the new leftist political regime concluded (quite accurately, in fact) that the entire activity of the Communal Society failed to meet the goals for which it was created. What is left of the initiative of the Society and the Building Office almost a century from its foundation? 4.000 very good quality houses grouped in modern allotments and still appreciated by the residents, even given the continuous improvement of the living standards. Although the strategy did not meet the objectives, the constructive results of the activity carried out by these two institutions represent, up to the present day, one of the most lucrative urban experiments of modernization.
How can we take action?
We have identified five types of actions to implement with a view to heritage protection, without looking too nostalgically upon the Communal Society for Cheap Housing and the Building Office. These actions must be carried out after all the residents of the allotments are informed on the rights and obligations following the listing of the allotments in the Register of Historic Monuments.
First, we need to amend certain details related to the demarcations and dates of the allotments already included in the Register of Historic Monuments. For example, Verzișori allotment, made by the Communal Society between 1923 and 1927, is dated incorrectly at the beginning of the 19th century and the standard houses are also found on Aristizza Romanescu and Petre Liciu Streets, not only on Verzișori Street (as mentioned in the Register of Monuments). Dristor allotment is dated between 1915 and 1919, although there were no actual building activities at the time (the Romanian administration was located at Iassy). The works only began in 1914, were ceased in 1916, resumed in 1919 and completed only during the Second World War (1944). Also, the demarcation is incomplete because it leaves out Rodiei, Miletin and Chiparosului Streets as well as Mircea Bădescu Street and Țiglina by-street, completed around 1944. Errors are also encountered in the case of Grant allotment (started in 1912 and completed around 1922-1923) and the allotment registered as „Fabrica de Chibrituri” (The Match Factory) which actually refers to the allotment of „Phoenix” or „Mohr” oil factory, authorized in 1897. The name „Fabrica de Chibrituri Allotment” belongs, in fact, to another parcelling located on ing. D. Teodoru, Ion Scorțeanu and Roznov Streets, built for the workers at the State Monopoly Administration and which included Fabrica de Chibrituri. The approximate dating (the first half of the 20th century) can be replaced with the correct data: Pieptănari allotment was made between 1927 and 1929 and complemented in 1951-1954 while Șerban Vodă allotment was initiated in 1912 and probably completed the same year.
The second action consists in elaborating a historical study with a view to protecting the other allotments designed and executed by the Communal Society for Cheap Housing even if the decision must be issued by the competent authorities and based on a close communication with the residents. All these allotments, Clucerului, Lupească, Steaua, Cornescu, Drumul la Tei, Calea Lacul Tei, Fabrica de Chibrituri, Rahova, Sf. Vineri, Drumul Sării, Lânăriei and Ana Davila, need to be analyzed and prepared for the classing procedure or listed as protected built areas. The historical information is found in all the leaflets we offered to the residents so far.
The third type of action refers to the possibility of placing memorial plates on the houses inhabited by important personalities and in the central locations of the allotments in order to draw attention to these houses and make known the history of the institutions that built them. At first sight, this action would contrast with the criticism addressed to these historical institutions as the houses were supposed to reach vulnerable social classes, and not high-ranked personalities. Yet confronting history and understanding the complexity of these institutions can result in a narrative that may help the wide audience and the house owners distinguish between the accomplishments and failures of these kind of state interventions in the field of housing policy.
The fourth action consists in the individual listing of several houses in these allotments. In the past six years, we met a series of residents who showed their willingness to cede their dwellings to the city hall for the purpose of setting up memorial houses. It is the case of painter Țipoia (79 Caranda Street) and the family of composer Dan Mizrahy (1 Turbinei Street) who wish that the memory of these personalities may endure in time. The setting up and the management takeover of the collections paired with listing as historic monuments can lead to a new understanding of the role that the Communal Society and the Building Office played in the history of the city. In agreement with the tone, another gesture of acknowledgement with respect to the value of these houses could consist in changing the name of some streets to commemorate the personalities who lived there.

The team
Irina Calotă-Popescu (UAUIM), architect
Dana Dolghin, historian, doctoral candidate at the University of Amsterdam
Mircea Dragomir, historian
Andreea Livia Ivanovici, architect
Andrei Mărgulescu (UAUIM), architect
Andrei Răzvan Voinea, historian, PhD, coordinator

Volunteers: Petre Doboș, Thomas Herrera-Sandu, Laura Mazâlu, Ionuț Pătrașcu, Lucreția Pop

The event: the launching of the book Idealul Bucureștean - familia cu casă și grădină (parcelările Societății Comunale pentru Locuințe Ieftine București 1908-1948) [The Ideal Life in Bucharest –The Family withHouse and Garden (the allotments made by the Communal Society for Cheap Housing in Bucharest 1908-1948] and the exhibition Casa Construcțiilor/The Building Office (Vatra Luminoasă). Both events will take place in December. Please follow the Facebook page of Studio Zona Association to find out details on the date of the event.