The aestheticization of Yugoslav architecture through structuralist analysis of form meaning relationship

Abstract

This paper addresses the aestheticization of Yugoslav architecture through the implementation of structuralist form that took place between the early 1950s and the late 1970s, and calls attention to the need for contemplating the relationship between formal and intrinsic elements in architecture. An important component of the interest for the formal issues of architecture was to make a distance from functionalistic philosophy, which led to novel understanding of form and to the aestheticization of architecture. Structuralist aesthetics, which was accepted in the 1950s, changed the concept of form for the concept of structure, and focused on the elucidation of internal construction and organization. With reference to structuralist theoretic-methodological approach, an aspiration of Yugoslav architects for achieving inter-relationship between physical and semiotic structure via invisible laws that define and form elements of structure is pointed out. Different aspects of aesthetics of Yugoslav architecture reflected in various approaches for accepting the formal principles: the recognition of constructive aesthetics and importance of integration of constructive and formal elements of an organic entity, the interest in relations between the elements of architectural system, the idea of fluid space, and the evolutionary growth, development and transformation. This paper starts from the premise that the aspiration for aestheticization of architectural form through articulation of the unity of elements promoted Yugoslav architecture to build a connection between formal structure of an object and the meaning of its structural elements.