Brutalism, metabolism and its American parallel : encounters in Skopje and in the architecture of Georgi Konstantinovski

Abstract
Massive, raw concrete structures – the likes of the Telecommunications Building
(1972–81) by Janko Konstantinov; the campus of Ss. Cyril and Methodius
University (1974) by Marko Musˇicˇ; the National Hydraulic Institute (1972) by
Krsto Todorovski; and the Bank Complex (1970) by R. Lalovik and O. Papesˇ – have
led to the production of an enduring monumental presence and helped inspire
Skopje’s title as the “Brutalist capital of the world”. These works followed Kenzo
Tange’s introduction of Japanese Metabolism to Skopje through his role in the
1965 United Nations sponsored reconstruction competition. The unique position
of a Non-Aligned Yugoslavia staged and facilitated architectural and professional
exchange during the Cold War. Each trajectory and manifestation illustrates the
complex picture of international architectural exchange and local production.
Skopje and its numerous Brutalist edifices is an elucidative story, because it
represents a meeting point between Brutalism, Metabolism and its American
parallel.
This article discusses, in particular, the Skopje Archive Building (1966) and the
“Goce Delcˇev” Student Dormitory (1969) – two buildings designed by the architect
Georgi Konstantinovski, realised on his return from a Masters program at Yale
University and employment within I. M. Pei’s New York office. Their architecture
illustrates the simultaneous preoccupations of leading architects at the time in
regaining a conceptual ground made explicit through a complete and
apprehensible image. From this particular position, the article explores the
question of ethics and aesthetics central to Banham’s outline of the “New
Brutalism”.