A ‘relation between relations’: Socialist mass housing and residential towers of Vojvode Stepe Boulevard, Belgrade, Serbia

Abstract

This paper investigates the residential towers of Block 10 in Vojvode Stepe Boulevard, Belgrade, Serbia. The two towers (buildings no. 39 and 40) were initially designed by Branko Aleksic in 1969 and re-designed three years later by Aleksic and his co-author, Stana Aleksic. Taking into account the housing policy of the day, the urban planning of the Boulevard and the role played by the towers? investor, association ?INPROS?, the paper approaches architects as intermediaries. The designers are understood as part of a network addressing Belgrade?s housing deficit, themselves navigating a tight creative space determined by forces operating beyond their control. At the same time, their work is recognized as bent on producing a distinct set of subjectivities, with each referring, individually, to a pattern of political organisation, consumer culture, gender, or class. The towers are thus probed for their capacity to act as a medium, both in themselves and as part of a larger whole.