Residential architecture of George Pavlovic Kovalevsky in interwar Belgrade

Abstract

George Pavlovic Kovalevsky, architect and urban planner, belongs to the most significant authors who created in the period between the Two World Wars in Belgrade. Yet, his work and life have rarely been the subject of scholarly literature, while the study of his housing projects has been overlooked. This paper discusses housing projects designed by Kovalevsky mainly in collaboration with another Russian architect Vladimir Bilinski. The analysis of the projects is based on original archival plans, documents and photographs. Residential buildings designed during 1921-1923 by these two architects include small single-storey houses, multi-storey building and spacious villas. Although of different surface, volume and shape, they have some common characteristics such as: classical construction, equable aesthetic quality that followed the spirit of the late Secession or the modernized Academicism, and were designed in line with the requirements of the property-owners. Buildings created by Kovalevsky and Bilinski cannot be considered among the most important achievements of the interwar Belgrade residential architecture, but their study is important because it contributes to a better understanding and evaluation of the work of these authors, as well as the overall architectural production of that period. In a broader sense, this paper builds upon general rise in interest in the revaluation of cultural, social and historical values of residential architecture in Belgrade that was created in the late 19th and the first half of the 20th century, as an important segment of the material and immaterial cultural heritage and the identity of the city and contributes to its more adequate interpretation and preservation.