The Rise and Fall of the Romanian “Steel Fortresses” and the Case of Hunedoara, 1949-1999. Built and Environmental Legacies of Socialist Industrialisation

In the newly formed Eastern Bloc, the “Need for Steel” became a tool in strengthening the political and ideologic foundation of the socialist system, with all its national declinations in which the centralised Soviet model of territorial governance played a major role in building new “steel identities”. One such industrial place is Hunedoara in Romania. Located in southwest Transylvania, Hunedoara presented a steel industry since the late 19th century. Still, it was entirely transformed into a national-level symbol of socialist development, becoming the first “Steel Fortress” during 1949-1959 and arriving at its industrial and territorial peak during the mid-1970s. The book follows the case of Hunedoara, the experimentation, development, and implementation of a completely new planning model of the industrial architecture, sites, mono-industrial towns, and territories in socialist Romania. It looks at the way the “Hunedoara model” appeared applied at the national level, triggering the consolidation of a steel constellation composed of new “Steel Fortresses” and a variety of new industrial settlements. The book intends to bring new insights on how industrial architecture was approached during communism in Romania, and how it was designed, built, and transformed following its destiny during the post-1989 deindustrialisation. The book becomes necessary to the debate on how any further economic, social, and cultural development could start from the acknowledgement of the local resources embodied by the built environment, community, and landscape, especially in cases like Hunedoara where the local community is still formed by the steelworkers and their descendants, with a living memory powerful shaped by the industrial past.