Communist architecture pin-up tower. Genex Tower or “The Western Gate”, Novi Beograd, Serbia.
“They haven’t changed a thing here. Nobody has spent any money on this place in 40 years.” Given that my new Serbian bar-owning friend was pouring free drinks, and was actually complaining that the place hadn’t been spruced up since 1976, I kept my communist architecture loving opinion to myself. He just didn’t realise we were lounging in what will undoubtedly be a future Hollywood movie set, inside a building that would bring any lover of communist chic to their knees.
Nobody quite does architecture, design, and city planning, quite like ex-communist nations. Is “communist chic”, the illusion-filled products of the glory days of communism, ripe for a glamorous new takeover of the Western wallet? If they play their red-cards right, New Belgrade – the mind altering planned socialist city across the river Sava from historic Belgrade – is in prime position to be ground zero for the next rehash of the cultural revolution.
With a familiar blueprint, “Novi Beograd” was born from the ashes of World War II. Conceived as the new capital city of the benevolently named Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, the new communist government spared little time in converting a marshy no-mans land into a symbolic socialist utopia.
It was a time of a tremendous optimism. Novi Beograd represented a completely clean slate, in more ways than one. A radically modern, centrally planned city, worthy of representing the ambition, power, and the impressive concrete pouring ability of the burgeoning communist state of Yugoslavia.
Town Hall, Novi Beograd, Serbia. Architects Stojan Maksimovic and Branislav Jovin. Stunning communist-era architectural design.
Sava Centar, Novi Beograd, Serbia. Architect Stojan Maksimović, 1979. Future movie set, without doubt.
The heart of Block 23, Belgrade. Communist architecture and urban planning on a monumental scale.
25th May Sport Centre, Belgrade, Serbia. Just across the river from New Belgrade. Architect – Ivan Antic, 1975.
The scale of Novi Beograd’s “Blokovi” neighbourhood system becomes more apparent looking down from 30 levels above.
Another angle of Blok 62, one of the most impressive communist-era architectural sites of Belgrade, Serbia.
Although Belgrade, capital of modern day Serbia, is geographically just a stones throw from Novi Beograd, the two cities are utterly opposed in disposition. The communist era architects and town planners built Novi Beograd with a ruthless lack of sympathy towards the old historic core of Belgrade. Classical and elegant – versus brutal, exacting, and autocratically monumental. Down to it’s name, the new Belgrade was designed and planned to be absolutely contemporary.
For an outsider, Novi Beograd is surreal. Although originally conceived largely as a communist administrative center, Novi Beograd has eventuated primarily as residential housing. Western surburban-ites, you will need to adjust your definition of “housing”. Street by street, block by block, it’s a relentlessly repeated planned system – an immense and efficient concrete jungle, housing the largest number of residents of any municipality in Serbia.
The enormous scale of “Blokovi”, the fitting name given to the urban neighbourhoods of Novi Beograd, is difficult to exaggerate. Blokovi is a programmatic communist construction effort that took place over decades, one block after another, each one holding often more than ten thousand residents. Although the architectural style of the blocks differed as new design trends emerged – the planned intent was maintained – provide housing, and create a showcase of mass-produced large scale brutal communist architecture.
Despite the ironic and nostalgic appeal to a naive Westerner, Blokovi shows clear signs of dysfunction. Decaying raw concrete skyscrapers with severe maintenance issues and wide-spread vandalism, sit alongside abandoned buildings. Sounds like my kind of place, but despite the high density of residents, a distinct feeling of isolation prevails.
Communist Architecture versus Communist City Planning
But perhaps it’s not the brutal communist architecture that is at fault. It may be Novi Beograd’s city planning, not the buildings, that is to blame for many of these issues.
Organising of a city into distinct “precincts” is an urban planning methodology proven to be fraught with difficulties, and conducive to sterilisation of a city. We humans tend to enjoy a metropolis where cross-pollination of our daily activities and movements leads to random sights and encounters, unexpectedly occurring from moment to moment. Easy to experience in a city that grew out of organic randomness, much more difficult in a pre-planned city where zones are designed for efficiency above all else.
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Phillipa and her Pigeon friend “Staunchy” investigate the heart of a truly enormous communist era building in Block 23, New Belgrade, Serbia.
The Sava Centar has more floor space than the average 50 storey skyscraper, and yet is only several levels tall. An icon of communist architectural ambition in New Belgrade, Serbia.
Communism and concrete – a love affair. Novi Beograd, Serbia.
This building is 100,000 square metres. Just multiply this view by one hundred. Sava Centar, Novi Beograd.
The local supermarket.
Blokiva at ground level, Novi Beograd.
Triangular concrete in the snow, a Belgrade nod to Novi Beograd. Serbia.
I’m standing a long way back from that building, with quite a wide camera lens. It’s huge. Novi Beograd.
Colour photos, or black and white? Either way, communist architecture doesn’t care.
Blok 62. Communist architecture of Novi Beograd, Serbia.
Blok 62, Novi Boegrad. A fine example of communist architecture and city planning.
As an outsider exploring the once public-domain city of Novi Beograd, it’s easy to be wide-eyed and superficial about this otherworldly sci-fi styled spectacle. No, I didn’t grow up with Communism. Despite my fondness of brutal and modernist architecture, I have no concept of what that would be like to actually live in Novi Beograd. Perhaps “you had to be there” is a fair comment. However, I’m not alone, there is a huge fascination from the West, with all things Red.
From Che Guevara appearing on babies clothing, to the “Hope” Obama campaign poster designed by Shepard Fairey (an artist known for co-opting of communist stylings), through to a countless number of discretionary spending trinkets featuring iconography and distant communist abbreviations like USSR and CCCP. The West expresses it’s capitalistic love of a communist nostalgia they have never actually known.
People in the West were once bombarded with government propaganda about “the red devil”, and the inherent evilness of communism. Now, with the global decline of communism, the reigns have been handed over to savvy marketers, hoping to exploit this memory into a profitable trend. However, as with all remembered era’s and cultures, the blurring between the imaginary memory of communism, and whatever the reality of living with communism was, will only continue to get fuzzier.
Yes, you had to be there. But, I wasn’t. Maybe I would have loved it. Maybe, as a 1980′s teenager of communism, I would have dreamed of visiting stereotypical examples of “capitalist” architecture and culture, like McDonalds or Pizza Hut restaurants.
I don’t know. I wasn’t there.
But today, I did explore the impersonal metropolis of Novi Beograd, Serbia.
And, seriously, this communist architecture is really cool.
Nate
PS, lovers of this style of architecture, check out the articles on Novi Zagreb Croatia, Skopje Macedonia, and Bratislava Slovkia.
PPS, join the email list. No ads, no spam, ever. Each new post sent to your inbox. I’ve been travelling for over two hundred days so far, and I’m just getting started. I would love to have you on board.
Great photo of the Redex Tower in Serbia.Communist architecture on the whole always seem grey and dreary.The heart of block 23 Belgrade is a bit surprising, They had playgrounds?
Thanks Lyn. Block 23 had playgrounds, and what appeared to be two different schools, as well as various businesses such as a small market, and a hair salon, in the large “courtyard” area (for want of a better word). A mixed-use arrangement is common.
Why “had”?
Block 23 still has the playgrounds, the elementary school and the kindergarten.
Btw, amazing shot of the Genex tower.
Excuse my poor grammar, of course I should have wrote “has”. Thanks Dachaz!
Hi Nate, the sunlight and shadows on blox 62 in your photo’s, change the building completely from stark to warm and friendly. Great pics. lyn
Thanks Lyn – as I’m travelling, I don’t always have the luxury of being where I want to be at the right time of the day for photos, but I got lucky with Blok 62 – the light was perfect.
dear travelyn,
its “genex-tower”, not “redex-tower”. genex is/was a company. besides that, there is/was a restaurant and even flats for the average joe.
a synonyme for genex tower is the western gate, because it should “greet” the people who arrived from the airport into the town, from west :)
i can recommend EVERYONE who likes brutalism or communist architecture in belgrad to visit the eastern gate in the neighbourhood “konjarnik”. this complex is special to me, even if i dont like to go there, because its a very dangerous ´hood, especialy after dark. the buildings inside looks like in a new-york-ghetto-film from the 80ties.
here are some pics from google for those who like take a glance. enjoy :)
http://sajkaca.blogspot.de/2008/01/eastern-gate-of-belgrade-istocna-kapija.html
and
http://www.dspace.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/1810/218552/1/DSC_0900.jpg
Thanks for the info Milorad. I saw the Eastern Gate from my bus window as I was leaving Belgrade…. beautiful!
Glad to see you back! This place is several hours north from where I was born and raised!
Cheers mate… excellent, you’re Serbian. What an incredible country, very much enjoying myself here.
I wonder if it still looks so stark on a sunny summer’s day? Or if the streets are imbued with a vibrancy that doesn’t exist in winter?
I’m sure it would look just as stark in Summer – you can see from the first photo, one of the days I visited Blokiva it was nice and sunny. I’m not sure about the vibrancy, I’ve been told that Belgrade is a different place in Summer, so maybe Novi Beograd is as well. That having been said – Belgrade is petty vibrant, even now in Winter.
On a summer’s day the blokovi are HOOOOOOOTTTT – 40 degrees C, lots of asphalt and concrete, not a ton of shade… you can imagine. But I wouldn’t say it’s “stark,” although it may take some getting used to for some.
Hi Katie… I can only imagine! Personally, I think the Blokovi look amazing. My kind of suburbs!
Great blog. One of the freshest, non-pretentious photo-writers in a long time. Keep ‘em coming bro.
Very kind words Ray, thank you. I will keep em coming.
LOVE some of those images. I’m a real sucker for architecture photography, and some of these are amazing! There’s something so pleasing about the organization of communist architecture – they really tried, didn’t they? But now it just looks so sad and derelict.
Thanks Linda. The buildings are certainly looking a little run-down these days, but remain absolutely fascinating.
This is a fantastic post and your photos are amazing! Thank you so much – you transported me behind the former Iron Curtain. It really is as if the buildings are from a futuristic movie set. Do they also have old trains from the communist era with communist signs everywhere? And it feels as if it is going to drive back into a post-war era as soon as you see the train coming to a halt (although the train s surprisingly “modern” on the inside).
Hey Mireille – totally agree, it is like a futuristic movie set. The trains, well some are old, and some are really modern. It’s quite a juxtaposition.
Hey it’s great to see someone writing about eastern Europe architecture from the communist era. I myself traveled there in the 90′s while being a student of architecture and i realized how many building were far off our usual geometries…
Prague, Bratislava, Plzen- filled with buildings that showed formal solutions hard to find in the West.
Can’t take away the grimm atmosphere of he streets, though.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Pedro, thanks for your comment, what a great opportunity you had visiting Eastern Europe, whilst studying architecture. I know a lot of architects are fascinated with this part of the world, and understandably so. Look forward to seeing you around here, you may have noticed I have a thing for architecture!
Fantastic article and your photos seem to have captured the scene beautifully (I haven’t been but I can feel the oppressive grey buildings bearing down on me!). They still look cool though and I can definitely see them in a movie set!
Thanks Victoria, really appreciate the compliment. It’s just so obvious that this is a movie set, right?
Fantastic blog!! I plan on travelling to that part of the world and Im absolutely fascinated by the brutalist architecture. Do you have a list of must see spots? Ive heard that the SIV building in New Belgrade is absolutely amazing.
Hi Peter (from a fellow Australian). I don’t have a list, just head to Novi Beograd, you can’t go wrong. The SIV building is hugely impressive, on a grand scale. Communist architecture at it’s largest!
Ok, I’m now officially caught up on all your posts. My OCD kicks in and I have to read oldest to newest. Just mind boggling this city and all that concrete! Just makes me think of post-apocalyptic movie scenes. But you’re pictures somehow bring out their unique beauty and interestingness (I know that’s now a word, but I’m using it anyway). Looking forward to what you bring us next.
haha… now I just need to catch up on replying to your comments, Noelle! Belgrade really is a mind boggling city, Novi Beograd in particular – I’ve never experienced anything like the concrete neighbourhoods of Blokovi. It’s a strange place – as you say, a totally appropriate setting for a post apocalyptic movie, but on the other hand, still very much a community where people live, learn, and play. I’m really glad I got to see it all.
Hi, I like your article, and definitely cool photos.
On some “structural” points: Novi Beograd (New Belgrade) and Beograd (Belgrade) are not two different cities. New Belgrade is one of the municipalities of Belgrade, from total of 17. They all have the same basic postal code, with a few figures different to specify the municipality.
Similar structure is quite common for European capitals that were important in socialistic, socialist and post socialist times.
The fun is in the prestige – some of these blocks were The places to live at the times they were new. Some still are.
Hi Blanca, thanks for the clarification. In the city where I am from, the different municipalities refer to themselves as “cities” even though they are all part of the one city. Hence my use of the term.
I can only imagine what these blocks were like when new, and I for one would be happy to live in many of the blocks today – the apartments look fantastic in my opinion, and I’m a big fan of the way they are often laid out around schools, shops, open spaces, and public transport.
Thanks.
I’m so fond of communist brutalism – I chose to live in Berlin where every Plattenbau is a OMFG ;)
I’ll be in Beograd in ten days and looking forward to stare at those concrete beauties!
There’s a lot of fans of communist-era brutalism Elenaccia! You will LOVE Beograd, there is so much to see.
Just a little historical sidenote: Yugoslavia was not really behind the “Iron Curtain”. Since late 50s/early 60s most of people in Yugoslavia (bar some political dissidents and such, but basically 99% of population) could freely get a passport and travel. No visas, no restrictions. As for McDonalds, actually the first one in Eastern Europe opened up in Belgrade on March 24, 1988 – that’s before they’ve had McD in South Korea, Portugal or Greece…
check this group “old photographs of novi beograd”
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stare-slike-Novog-Beograda/265072550942
Thanks Marko…that’s a really interesting group, I’ll be following along.
Thanx for nice pictures and kind words about our capital city.
I just wanted to add something about your prediction of ‘future movie sets’.
There is movie (with Luc Besson) already filmed there.
The movie is called “District 13″ ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414852/ ) (with stunning shots and scenes of New Belgrade from garage level to aerial view. There are also many parkour scenes, so you might find it interesting to see.
Cheers and visit again :)
Thanks SL – I will try and check that movie out. As for visiting again…I already miss Belgrade, and am certain I will be back.
That first photo is an OMG moment. And those last pictures are a combination of both. Looks as if the city was built in Minecraft haha. I saw these photos of communist-era buildings that had been creatively splashed with colors and it completely changed the feel of the architecture from a bygone era to modern feel.
Sitting in a Blokovi enjoying your blog, I’ve mixed feelings about the architecture. It seems like a 1950s sci-fi movie, all kinds of wonderful and peculiar however, the government really need to help maintain the buildings. I am surprised by the lack of vandalism compared to the number of people who live here, everyone seems to be cleaning and fixing their apartment day and night but I think it’s hard for inhabitants. Oftentimes there are so many people in small apartments, whole families, and extended families in one bedroomed apartments if they are lucky. There are plenty of amenities, albeit sadly neglected and poorly maintained – which is unfortunately the order of the day in Serbia. The Ada Ciganlija is a wonderful public amenity close to New Belgrade and provides much needed respite from the unforgiving concrete jungle, particularly in summer which is unbearably hot in the blokovi. The architecture may be worth a visit but I feel Serbians deserve so much more than relics of a bygone time, something that offers a hope and freedom.
Hi Spud, I am back in Belgrade today as well, and yesterday, took another visit out to Blokovi (Blok 70 – great Chinese food). You’re right – these buildings should be maintained. And the buildings also give me mixed feelings – but most of the locals I talk to think that Novi Beograd is a nice place. I’ve been inside one building a few days ago, it was a top-floor apartment split over two levels, with just two people living there (mother and son). They were happy, and veyr proud of their home. Hopefully, I’ll get to see inside some more, and talk to some more residents – to get a better overview of just how people feel living in these apartment blocks.