The city and congress hall represents a cultural phenomenon that was already dedicated to a mass audience back in the nineteenth century. Especially in the years after the Second World War, this type of building flourished throughout Europe—primarily as a symbol of a new cultural beginning. However, what value and significance do these cultural buildings, designed primarily in the 1960s and 1970s, possess today? Can their architectural quality and monumentality really be preserved, whilst still meeting current usage requirements, economic parameters and energy standards?
This book places the architectural task of the city and congress hall in the context of architectural and social history after 1945. It looks at the esthetic quality of architecture, as well as the social and political background to the development of the city and congress hall as a building genre, bringing together a wide knowledge of theory and practice for sustainable approaches to the monuments of the post-war era.