A Concrete Alliance: Communism and Modern Architecture in Postwar France

Join us for the launch of Dr. Vanessa Grossman’s new book, A Concrete Alliance: Communism and Modern Architecture in Postwar France. Concrete Alliance examines the massive reshaping of French cities that took place between 1958 and 1981, an episode commonly regarded as a unique time in which modernist ideals were tested on an unprecedented scale. Yet the history of postwar French modernism has never fully accounted for the influence of one of architecture’s most important institutional patrons, the French Communist Party (PCF). Drawing political theory and architectural history into conversation, Vanessa Grossman probes the shifting but enduring alliance between modern architecture and the PCF in the aftermath of the political crisis of 1958, prompted by the Algerian War of Independence and Charles de Gaulle’s rise to power.

Vanessa Grossman is an architect, historian, and curator. Her work addresses the intersections of architecture with ideology, housing and governments, with a special focus on global practices in Cold War-era Europe and Latin America. Her research and teaching interests include postwar French architecture and politics, the urban and housing histories of Europe, Latin America and the Amazon Forest, intersectionality and the politics of climate change, architectural exhibitions and archives.