The Local–Global Tendencies in Serbian Contemporary Architecture

What is it about?

Where is a point in architectural design at which the local ends and the global starts, or vice versa, and what is that from which it has derived? What is the global, after all? Is it a common world heritage, as a common resource? Is the global thereby more important than the local, national, traditional, which is, in some way, considered a tendency to look more into the past, into the proven models, a tendency to pull back, not inclined to experiment with new ideas and to take a more energetic step forward? Can a nuanced relationship between these seemingly opposed poles be a right and stimulating way towards finding a solution to the growing opposites, but also a solution to preserve the much-needed diversity as a stronghold of one’s identity? Perhaps, the creative stimuli could be actually found in the space of communication and intricately interwoven relationship between the local, traditional, national and that what is universal, global and general. In the context of these questions and thinking, but also of visible tendencies and dilemmas that the architects deal with in smaller local environments such as the Serbian one, the architectural works designed and realized from the contemporary Serbian architectural practice will be considered in this article from the position of architectural historians, theoreticians and critics. The multi-layered, often vague double meaning and nuanced ties and interpretations of the mentioned relationships will be tracked at the examples of several important Serbian architects (architects I. Antić, M. Jovanović, B. Petrović, D. and M. Marušić, S. Krunić, I. Marić, B. Mitrović, I. Rašković) who were selected in order to tack the line of development of the relationship between the local and global in the period 1950-2000, which was also marked by turbulent social and political changes. Key words: local, global, stimulus, multi-layered, Serbian architecture

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Why is it important?

Where is a point in architectural design at which local ends and global starts, or vice versa, and what is that from which it stems from? What is global, after all? Is it a common world heritage, as a common resource? Is global thereby more important than local, national, traditional, which is, in some way, considered a tendency to look more into the past, into the proven models, a tendency to pull back, not inclined to experimentation with new ideas and to take a more energetic step forward? The architectural works designed and realized from the contemporary Serbian architectural practice will be considered in this article from the position of architectural historians, theoreticians and critics.

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