Lecturi interpretative ale proiectelor de arhitectură industrială în perioada postbelică / Lecture notes on projects of industrial architecture in the post-war period

Industrial architecture represented a true ‘leitmotiv’ of the planning practice during the socialist years in Romania (1945 – 1989), when significant territorial transformations were triggered by forced industrialization - urbanization processes. During those years, the industry was a priority state investment with impact on territorial, urban and architectural planning. In fact, architects of the period often engaged in matters of industrial architecture and contributed with numerous articles dedicated to this theme in "Arhitectura" magazine. The continuity with which the industrial architecture was covered, together with the diversity of the approached aspects, contributed in transforming the magazine in a primary documentation source for the research on the recent past industrialization. At a cursory reading level, the magazine covers complex and diverse issues concerning the industrial planning in reference to its territorial systematization, architectural features, architect’s role in the planning process, and even to the constructions industrialization through standardization, type-design and prefabrication. All these aspects are illustrated through a number of case studies spread all over the national territory, all representative of a variety of industrial branches. However, a more detailed analysis of the articles on industrial theme will reveal how valuable pieces of information are missing in order to define a thorough narrative of the 1945 – 1989 industrialization from an architectural perspective. This article will bring an interpretative lecture of the missing, or possibly intentionally omitted, aspects from the industrial projects presentation, in order to widen the research perspective and perception of this architectural theme. Articles published throughout the 1950 – 1989 were confronted with the wider specialist bibliography, archival materials, and in situ observations. Missing elements such as the territorial context, pre-1945 industrial references, authors, and even construction details are analysed in the overall presentation of the articles, in order to reveal to the reader an interpretative key of the, sometimes considered, obscure propagandist texts. In this analysis, the industrial architecture photography is considered among the primary information sources, revealing a rather qualitative interpretation of the architectural reading.