One walk along the ?Victory of Socialism? boulevard is bound to unnerve the political, moral or architectural authors of its blocks. The ?Victory? never got to belong to ?socialism?, but is now an asset of the vernacular. The new owners roofed up their balconies and thus covered the columns, cable moldings and girdles. Blasphemy! Not long ago they would have been made to pay fierce fines by some comrade inspector and take away all the ironwork that spoiled the wondrous and majestic façade. Yet, especially after 1989 and almost everywhere, the new owners took over and used to their liking this residual space of their collective dwellings. The pickles, brine cabbage and potatoes for the winter (you never know when there is going to be another depression!) go well with the warm clothes, in summer time, and the other way round. More business-minded and, thanks to finally good odds, better situated, those who live on the ground floor have opened boutiques and barber?s shops in their livings, to which clients have access through the balcony. In case there were no balconies on the ground floor, such storage spaces have been invented. The ground floor flat my sister lives in had been extended by the former owner ? a true husbandman! - to lead to a wine cellar, under the pavement in front of the block! A neighbor of mine, who lived on the ground floor of a block I used to live in, on the top floor, took under private ownership the whole verdure spot adjacent to his flat and turned it into a private yard: garage, vine bower, chicken, a pig and a dog (no pedigree, but quite a hero). The man had even devised his own sewerage system: he used to water the vine and swear at us when we would wash our own balconies, for thus we defiled his yard!

            Before allowing ourselves to laugh at the poor wits of those who were dragged from the countryside into the towns and mounted on their flats, let us use our minds and think. The balconies are, in the Romanian blocks, the farthest and less visible space as compared to the entrance/public space. The equivalent of this space in a traditional household is precisely the back yard, with its storage places, summer kitchens, and stables. If the post-war Romanian architects had given it some thought when they took over Western modern architecture and gulped it unswallowed, instead of studying the type of dwelling of the peasants, whom they transplanted in a completely alien environment, they would have noticed that the space meant for relaxation and rest hours (the verandah or porch) is co-substantial with the entrance to the house. If the balcony were to be such a space, it should have preceded, or be joined to, the entrance to the flat, not to the kitchen. If any spoiling of the urban façade by laundry and household things exhibition were to be avoided, then the utility spaces should not have been built close to the entrance, but at the other end of the flat, with separate access stairs and opening to the back of the block, not to the main street. It would not have been a big deal and no novelty either: a run-on balcony with access to each flat (at most two on each floor) would have solved the problem of a porch-balcony. An organization of the dwelling spaces, function of entrance, from the more public/clean to the more private/utilitarian, would have solved the problem of joint property. One could have looked at the inter-war examples, true masterpieces in their attempt to create a life standard similar to the villa. But it would probably have been too simple.