From Ottoman to Modern - Transformation of Prishtina 1945-1990

Abstract

This paper deals with the transformation of the city of Prishtina from an ottoman to a modern city, the capital of Kosova . A short overview of the ottoman city and its parts is presented and the context in which transformation began in the beginning of the 20th century when Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Balkan wars 1911-1913 and in particular after the World War 1, when the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was established after 1920 The research tries to give an insight to different phenomena of the development of architecture and the city of Prishtina - such as decadent transformation of the historic core of the city and construction of the new city areas planned in the spirit of modernism, through mass production and typical housing architecture, often through architectural offices throughout the former Yugoslavia. In these developments regional variations of modernism are possible to trace, expressed also through the influence on the Prishtina school of Architecture by the teachers coming from the respective schools - Belgrade, Sarajevo, Skopje, to the social position of architectural profession today and its presence in the media. A combined research methodology/strategy involving interpretative historical research was used in this paper. Since it covers different political, economic and social contexts, it was necessary to use the combined strategy at different levels. In the research the basic arguments are found in the literature and archived documents with a common context.