Cycle excursion: Housing estates on the west: inbuilt Podhradie – vertically segregated Karlova Ves – Dlhé diely experiment

Expedition Panelstory: Bike-trip to the abstract landscape of Bratislava mass housing / Radeln durch die abstrakte Landschaft der Plattensiedlungen Bratislavas

Mass housing development was one of the most ambitious and at the same time most problematic subjects of modernism. Bratislava stands as a unique example of concentrated and extensive implementation of collective housing within Europe. The city has experienced the highest number of conceptions of town planning, tested the greatest amount of prefabricated panel types, and built the most significant quantity of precast concrete highrise apartments, where 20 years ago almost 80 % of the inhabitants used to live. Mass housing in Bratislava represents a heritage provoking with its monumentality and monotony, generating social problems and simultaneously holding vitality and ability to change. The Architecture Days 2012 provide a historical, slightly romantic, and, most of all, free view on mass housing constructions in Bratislava. Bicycle tours will reveal the history of particular estate developments. Attention will be drawn to their urban structures, public spaces, parks, artworks and architectural delights hidden in the anonymity of serial buildings. Architects, urban planners, artists and other experts involved in Bratislava´s mass housing will adress the audience at each special object of interest. The Architecture days 2012 are the 10th jubilee of this event. This is also a reason to expect some interesting surprises for the active attendants.