Renata Detka

The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was a socialist state in the Southeast and Central Europe. Over time it developed a hybrid identity by adopting both Western liberal democratic and Soviet communistic leanings in politics, culture and architecture. It was assembled of 6 (today 7) independent countries, where each had its own capital city as follows:

– Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo

– Croatia, Zagreb

– Macedonia (renamed, North Macedonia), Skopje

– Montenegro, Titograd (renamed, Podgorica)

– Slovenia, Ljubljana

– Serbia, Belgrade

Furthermore Serbia recognizes two autonomous provinces: Vojvodina with the capital Novi Sad and Kosovo and Metohija (today, Republic of Kosovo) with its capital Priština.

Modernism, Social Realism and Brutalism:

Emerging from the industrial revolutions of the 19th century modern architecture, or modernist architecture found its way to Yugoslavia at the beginning of the 1920s. The style embraced minimalism and the idea that the form of a building should correspondent its function. Commonly used materials in construction were glass, steel and reinforced concrete. Modernism was pushed for the widespread to become the “national” architectural style of Yugoslavia by many architects, but it soon encountered obstacles, as the focus shifted after World War II towards the Eastern Block wherefrom social realism was adopted. This shift led to the abolishment of private architectural practices, while the governing Communist Party condemned modernism as “bourgeois formalism”. Nevertheless, social realism was short-lived in Yugoslavia. It abruptly ended after Tito’s split with Stalin in 1948. Once again, the nation and its architecture turned to the west and returned to modernism, which now came to symbolize the nation’s break from the USSR regime, and supported the Non-Aligned Movement. All this combined with efforts to commemorate World War II, resulted in creation of numerous abstract sculptures, the so-called spomeniks (engl. memorials) that are typical in Yugoslavia.

Descending from modernism, brutalism became very popular among younger generations of architects in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The style is characterized by minimalist constructions that showcase bear building materials for example exposed and unpainted bricks or concrete while remaining on the monochromatic color palette. Other featured materials were steel, timber and glass. An example for brutalist architecture in Yugoslavia is Hotel Zlatibor built in (1981) by Svetlana Kana Radević in Užice, Serbia.

The 1950s architecture in Yugoslavia was also influenced by decentralization, when each state started analyzing and focusing on its own culture and regionalism. This was also the time when consciousness about historical and ethnic heritage started to arise.

Women in Architecture

In Socialist Yugoslavia, the position and role of women in architecture was strongly impacted by the situation in the society of the postwar country. Women in Yugoslavia became legally even to men, only a few years after the World War II. Even though gender inequality was legally abolished, a female architect in Yugoslavia was still expected to maintain the household as any other perhaps unemployed woman, upon returning from work. Many families stayed patriotically oriented, and some female architects had a hard time fulfilling their dreams and faced difficulties, as in practice, there was a huge imbalance that crippled women to advance in leadership positions. For example, in 1971, only 10% of women were in management positions in architecture. In addition to that, many women were pushed to the background, and remained rarely known to the public.

Fortunately, there are plenty of women who managed to get the attention of the public and made their own names in architectural industry. With this website we continue to commemorate them and their hard work.

Introduction to Macedonia

Alongside other former Yugoslavian countries, Macedonia also had to be rebuild after the Second World War. However many efforts of the rebuilding were destroyed in a destructive earthquake which hit Skopje (North Macedonia) on July 26, 1963. The earthquake, which was followed by several aftershocks killed over 1 070 people, injured 3 000 to 4 000, and left over 200 000 people homeless. It has been estimated that 80% of Skopje was completely destroyed in the earthquake. However this event led to the development of a major architectural and urban reconstruction master plan for Skopje. Besides medical and financial support, engineering and construction teams from 78 countries around the world were sent to Macedonia.

Rebuilding Skopje

As mentioned above, Brutalism was very popular in the 1950s and 1960s among young generations of architects and as such strongly influenced the reconstruction after the earthquake. Kenzo Tange an architect from Japan was proposing a full redesign of Skopje in Brutalism and played a key role in spreading the idea of this style. Because the city was once again to be completely restructured and rebuilt, teams of architects and urban planners gathered to work on the master plan. The female Macedonian architect, Mimoza Nestorova-Tomić played an important role in the rebuilding of Skopje since she was the head of the Macedonian team of experts.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Yugoslavia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_architecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture

https://www.gradnja.rs/zene-koje-su-izgradile-staru-jugoslaviju/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_Skopje_earthquake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_North_Macedonia

Image Credits

Main picture 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Republic_of_North_Macedonia#/media/File:Museum_of_Macedonia_1.jpg