Abstract

City Revolution of Free People
The article presents a short profile of Walter Segal and his foundation for social construction projects: "In his solutions, Segal was far from the monumentalism of modernist artists. Similarly to them, however, he preached the need for psychological independence from history: 'The heritage of the past is often a cruel obstacle in implementing modern solutions.' He believed in a profound revolution in architecture which would refer not to technological novelties and trivia, but to actual human life.
Segal recognised three main aspects of this type of construction. Firstly, the future inhabitants bond with the place where they will live by their work on it in a way which is much stronger than in the case of any other type of construction. Secondly, this process awakens the inhabitants' awareness of the place where they live, of people they coexist with, and of the architecture itself. Thirdly, the buildings are similar but not identical, which creates equilibrium between the community and individuality. Wasn't this the essence of Kropotkin's idea when he spoke about free people’s mutual help?