An Environmental Critique: Impact of Socialist Ideology on the Ecological and Cultural Sensitivity of Belgrade's Large-Scale Residential Settlements

Abstract

This paper advocates the stance that sustainable approaches in architecture, although usually associated to contemporary practice, have a very complex relationship with the history of architecture and urbanism. By adopting an interpretative framework, the paper highlights the environmental aspects of the architectural practice of Belgrade's large-scale residential settlements created under the cultural influences of socialist ideology. The socialist system enabled systematic implementation of the principles of the Congres International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM) on a large urban scale, in contrast to capitalist countries where these principles were applied on a smaller scale. The paper starts with the premise that these cultural influences, together with the integration of the principles of modernism, caused the rejection and the loss of traditional and ambience values in architecture. Research has shown that these values play a very important role in meeting the needs of ecological and cultural sensitivity in architecture. In its final consequences, the results of research have revealed that, although widely criticized for its break with tradition and the loss of ambience values, residential architecture in Belgrade during the socialist era included significant aspirations of the architectural practice directed at the improvement of aspects of sustainability, and especially aspects of ecological and cultural sensitivity.