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Seeking Identity in Former Yugoslavia's Socialist Architecture

Milosevic, Suncica
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1378196389

Abstract Details

2013, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
Overpowering the city of Niksic, Montenegro, is a structure, perhaps no longer interesting in its form, but definitely in its purpose and meaning. It is the Home of Revolution, an edifice conceptualized to arise emotions of awe, to acknowledge the horrifying period of struggle against Fascism and Nazism, to showcase architectural wisdom and ambition of the Yugoslav dream and to be the center of arts and culture. According to this alien, brutalist object, the city of Niksic, and largely the republic of Montenegro would be recognized upon the Yugoslavian, and wider European stage. Home of the Revolution was supposed to be the biggest and most grandiose of all World War II Spomeniks or monuments that the federal government of Yugoslavia sponsored since the development of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. However, unlike the thousands of primarily sculptural WWII monuments across the nation, this particular monument was to house a complete cultural program and function. Yet, no one had anticipated the unraveling political events that initiated with Tito's passing in 1980. In place of a people's collective revolution, came the antibureaucratic revolution with deep economic and political crisis that slowly led to a complete suspension of the project. Since then, the Home of Revolution has been patiently awaiting its fate, abandoned, violated and decaying for the past 25 years. Proposed is a fictional projection of events which depict transitional psychological stages of society, society whose mentality evolves into a rising state of acceptance where the monument becomes part of the everyday life, part of a society which no longer feels anger or shame towards its past. The cultural shifts are directly reflected upon architecture and layered through time as a direct opposition to the past ideology's single-handed imposition of an architectural style which was irrelative toward the existing culture and context. Thus, the site, through the acts of the people, not only evolves into a state of acceptance but truly becomes the home of revolution, occupied by daily activities and a new fostering of arts and culture. This process will enable the fragmented notion of national identity to undergo a journey of self-discovery and maturity, as the re-evaluation and re-focus upon rooted values and the past will aid the wounded society to re-identify with its new evolving culture and physical environment. It is my belief that these processes of self-discovery through stylistic expression in arts and architecture can provide for a matured dialogue, a wide stage of expression, and for cultural vibrancy under the new unifying political umbrella, that of the European Union.
Michael McInturf, M.Arch. (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
243 p.
Architecture
Home of Revolution; Monument; Socialism; Yugoslavia; Montenegro; Identity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Milosevic, S. (2013). Seeking Identity in Former Yugoslavia's Socialist Architecture [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1378196389

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Milosevic, Suncica. Seeking Identity in Former Yugoslavia's Socialist Architecture. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1378196389.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Milosevic, Suncica. "Seeking Identity in Former Yugoslavia's Socialist Architecture." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1378196389

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1378196389
422
© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Seeking Identity in Former Yugoslavia's Socialist Architecture by Suncica Milosevic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.