private space

‘Housing for Everyone’ was the clarion call in socialist countries from the Baltic to the former Yugoslavia. Housing construction policies were seen as the best tool for promoting social fairness and the common good. Comprehensive state programmes for the creation of residential space were set up, with the construction site coming to symbolize the promise of the socialist future. Numerous house-and-home exhibitions, harking back to similar events of the 1920s, presented tomorrow’s domestic dreams with new interiors, innovative household technologies, and furniture that was both functional and flexible. However, later design proposals for more experimental dwellings remained stuck at the prototype stage, as did the vision of a cybernetically controllable home. The 1980s then saw a mushrooming of do-it-yourself projects as a way to counteract the monotony of prefab building culture.