Description
Is war destruction the final act of “urbicide” – the killing of a city? If it is to be judged by the postwar reconstruction of Yugoslav cities, the only acceptable answer would be a resounding – no. Today the predominant sentiment among its citizens and scholars alike is that the violent conflict was just a trigger for the systematic devastation of socialist and modernist architectural heritage, the maltreatment of which continued as the default strategy for (re)creating national identities long after the war. Within the intense processes of post-conflict reconstruction, Yugoslav cities were drastically redefined and recalibrated to fit new political, social and economic realities.Multilayered investigations into modalities in which architecture engaged with violence and ideology to produce a myriad of informal archetypes is possible through construction of a histoire croisée of the multiple architectural sources and histories. Set in the distinctive political and cultural context of a post-war and post-socialist Yugoslavia, this lecture will tackle the complex processes of urban renewal in a harshly polarized society struggling to overcome the challenges of economic, cultural and ideological transitions. Special emphasis will be given to the dual, yet diminishing, role of architects as both active voices in a public discourse, and translators of socio-political forces into architectural form.
| Period | 20 Nov 2018 |
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| Held at | ETH Zürich, Switzerland |