Environmental Activism in the Architectural Culture of Socialist Yugoslavia: The Case of the Center for Urban Development Planning (CEP)

Abstract

This article explores transfers of ideas and environmental practices that developed or circulated in late socialist Yugoslavia in the 1970s and 1980s. Case studies of alternative models for environmental initiatives in architectural and urban practices are explored to contest a historical narrative of environmental activism that claims it is underpinned by Western democratic political conditions. The research is based on a comparative analysis of documents and period sources about the activities, which ranged from self-organized exhibitions to architecture and urban-design competitions. Thus, the article examines how these strategies of environmental mobilization contributed to shifts in the highly formalized politics of urban planning prevalent at that time. This article therefore examines political and cultural factors, as well as the dynamics underpinning dialogues, critiques, and collaborative practices as part of a general movement to humanize the transition as a condition of the late-socialist society. This article challenges conventional models of interpreting relations between local and global architectural culture by bringing its multilayered transfers under the spotlight.