Milutin Borisavljević and His Scientific Aesthetics of Architecture

Abstract

Milutin Borisavljević and His Scientific Aesthetics of Architecture Nebojša Stanković The name of Milutin Borisavljević,1 an architect, a theorist of architecture, and a publicist who was active between the two world wars, had been more or less forgotten for decades before it started to be mentioned again among architects and architectural historians in the 1980s. This comeback into architectural discourse was initiated by the revived interests of the post-modernists in classicism—which was the main idiom of Borisavljević’s architecture—and other pre-modern traditions, as well as by an interest in his theoretical work, which had been largely unknown to the new generations of architects. However, those interests generated only a very small number of studies that addressed his activities as architect and theorist.2 The majority discusses his [End Page 133] architectural designs and realized buildings. Only a few examine his theoretical views and concepts, which he extensively published in articles and books during his lifetime. The common impression given by both Serbian and international studies of Borisavljević’s architectural and theoretical opus is that of a lukewarm praise.3 They usually stress Borisavljević’s erudition and analytical skills, classical training and aestheticism, balanced compositions and careful designs, but most of them do not actually assess his possible contributions to architecture or architectural theory, giving an impression that no originality can be found in his work. The buildings he designed are often omitted in surveys of Serbian architecture of the first half of the 20th century, and his theoretical works remain known only to scholars and enthusiasts. Is that a sort of silent evaluation? And is, then, the evaluation positive or not? It seems to me that this ambiguous critical assessment of possible merits or shortcomings, as well as the fact that his works still remain insufficiently studied and that they have not been put into the historical and social context, keep Borisavljević, both as an architect-designer and an architect-theorist, in oblivion. The present article might not change this, especially for the reason that it addresses his theoretical work, rather than practice, and only a part of it, in the discipline he defined as scientific aesthetics of architecture. However, since aesthetics figures prominently in all segments of his theoretical oeuvre, I [End Page 134] hope that the present paper will shed more light on his aesthetical ideas and intentions. Milutin Borisavljević (Fig. 1) was born in 1889 in Kragujevac, Serbia, in the family of the physician Miloš Borisavljević.4 After receiving primary and secondary education in Niš and Belgrade, respectively, he enrolled in the Technical Faculty of the University of Belgrade. He graduated from the Department of Architecture in 1912 and the following year was appointed “sub-architect” in the Ministry of Construction. With the outbreak of the First World War, although previously declared physically unfit for military service, Borisavljević enlisted as a volunteer. In 1916, with Serbian Army evacuating through Albania, he reached Corfu. From there, he was sent to France for further education. On his way to Paris, he spent two months in Rome, studying its architectural monuments. In Paris, he enrolled in the École nationale supérieure d’art, but after a year he transferred to the Sorbonne. At the Sorbonne, Borisavljević studied aesthetics with Professor Victor Basch (1863– 1944)—renown philosopher, proponent of the Einfühlung Theorie in aesthetics, and activist5—and under Basch’s mentorship attained a doctoral degree in 1926, with the thesis entitled “Les théories de l’architecture: Essai critique sur les principales doctrines relatives à l’esthétique de l’architecture,” which was published the same year (Fig. 2).6 While in Paris, he taught aesthetics of architecture at the École des hautes études sociales à Paris (1921–26) and École spéciale d’architecture (1923–26), and published another two monographic works: Prolégomènes à une esthétique de l’architecture (1923) and La science de l’harmonie architecturale (1925).7 In 1926, Borisavljević moved back to Belgrade and the following year he founded the architectural studio “Parthenon”. In the years before the Second World War, he produced numerous architectural designs, primarily for private houses and apartment buildings, but also for administrative and business...