Intersections of contemporary architecture: Ranko Radović and the discourse of postmodernism

Abstract

This paper investigates the work of the architect Ranko Radović (1935-2005) and his role in the architectural culture of Serbia and former Yugoslavia. As a professor of history and theory of modern and contemporary architecture and a prominent public and media figure of architectural culture, Radović was one of the key proponents of the critique of high modernism in the 1960s and 1970s, and of the articulation of postmodernist architectural discourse in the 1980s. He conveyed his ideas and concepts in academic and public lectures and through urban and architectural design, exhibitions of drawings, architectural essays, criticism and books, and in pioneering educational TV programs on architecture. These multiple practices, it is discussed, were effectively extending the modernist concept of architectural praxis to postmodernist concept of architecture as a discursive field. The paper argues the consequences of the intersections of academic work as part the university curriculum for the subject of Contemporary Architecture, early architectural investigations and active public participation in architectural culture. The text also looks into his relations with senior colleagues, professors Nikola Dobrović, Milorad Pantović, Oliver Minić and Bogdan Bogdanović, and the ways Radović extended their ideas. Central to the argument is the critique of modernism developed through architectural designs of the Memorial House in Tjentište (1964-1972) and the Small-Businesses Centre in Belgrade (1968-1971). The two projects are examined against the theory of postmodernism and the concept of critical regionalism. In conclusion, the paper looks at debates on contradictions and antinomies of the postmodern culture, and notes the current surge in study of its aesthetic practices to which this research aims to contribute.