Drumul Taberei Bucharest / A Place to Live – 1968

Drumul Taberei (Bucharest) During Construction in 1968 –
A Place to Live
/ Photos © by Dan Dimancescu

During the 1950s huge numbers of private houses and apartments were expropriated. In many cases prior owners were forced into one or two rooms of larger houses and three or more families moved in all sharing one kitchen and one or two toilets. Such conditions and a high-pressure efforts to urbanize the population led to demand for housing. Hence fast-track projects like Drumul Taberei. For many urbanites these conditions were an improvement in providing self contained private living spaces. First in line were people with ‘approved’ backgrounds meaning the so-called working class (non-bourgeois) and the privileged bureaucrats. In many cases apartartment privileges were taken away if political accusations surfaced.