Basic Development Attributes of Modernist Architecture in Socialist Yugoslavia

Strong economic growth and multileveled development of the entire society that marked 45 years of existence of former state Yugoslavia transformed social conditions of previously non-developed and neglected rural state to the middle developed European country with significant urban, industrial, infrastructural and cultural progress and permanent rise of life standard. Intensive urbanization and construction of hundreds of thousands of residential units and hundreds of new settlements were realized thanks to massive use of numerous of prefabricated systems created and developed in Yugoslavia, designed and built in accordance to established high standards for housing design and construction technology. Related to the modernist ideas, architects and architecture had important role in changing of society, life conditions and way of life in general. Architecture was understood as one of the most representative reflections of proclaimed ideas for creation of new socialist society oriented to the wide spectra of human needs and public interests of the community. Predominant modernist orientation in architectural, urban design and planning approach wasn’t uniform and boring, but characterized with freely defined individualism of architects and numerous architectural schools and directions of architectural thinking oriented to research, innovations and different attitudes to tradition, internationalization, natural context, human-oriented design, art and visual expressions. Architecture of modernism was very often arrogant to context, urban and natural environment, but in case of Yugoslav modernism is significant and clear tendency of modernism to fully respect context of site topography, tradition of place, views, natural and climate conditions. Critical regionalism and organic modernism tendencies are legible from numerous examples, particularly in touristic architecture and existence of schools of architecture that were promoting modernist interpretation of traditional and vernacular architecture.