Toward a concrete utopia - Martino Stierli

Published in conjunction with a major survey exhibition on the
architectural production of Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1980,
this is the first scholarly publication to showcase an understudied
but important and exceptional body of modernist architecture.

Squeezed between the two rival Cold War blocs, Yugoslav architecture consistently
adhered to a modernist trajectory. As a founding nation of the Non-Aligned Movement,
Yugoslavia became a major exporter of modernist architecture to Africa and the Middle
East in a postcolonial world. By merging a variety of local traditions and contemporary
international influences in the context of a unique Yugoslav brand of socialism, often
described as the 'Third Way', local architects produced a veritable 'parallel universe'
of modern architecture during the forty-five years of the country's existence. This
remarkable body of work has sparked recurrent international interest, yet a rigorous
interpretative study never materialized in the United States until now.


Published in conjunction with a major exhibition on the architectural production
of Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1980, this is the first scholarly publication to
showcase an understudied but important body of modernist architecture. Featuring
new scholarship and previously unpublished archival materials, this richly illustrated
publication sheds light on key ideological concepts of Yugoslav architecture, urbanism,
and society by delving into the exceptional projects and key figures of the era.