The Reinterpretation of Socialist Utopian/Dystopian Housing Blocks in Poland: The Second Life of Prefab District Przymorze, Gdańsk

The post-World War II era saw the rise of concrete and prefabricated housing estates in many communist countries around the globe. After a decade or two, the dreamed utopia turned into a functional dystopia, with accumulated social and technical problems, followed by urban stigmatisation. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, some estates have been through a semiotic rebranding, followed by a new reappreciation as urban heritage. The essay follows the process of re-evaluation and the change of context and meanings of the communist-era blocks of flats in postsocialist milieux, focusing on the district of Przymorze, in the city of Gdańsk, Poland.