CERAK VINOGRADI: SPATIAL FRAMING, USER INTERVENTIONS AND THE SOCIALIST BIG OTHER
Abstract
This article investigates Cerak Vinogradi housing estate (Darko Marušić, Milenija Marušić and Nedeljko Borovnica, 1977-1988), moving through a string of relevant factors: from the chief principles of the housing policy, the urban and architectural design of the estate and the dynamics of its construction, to the contacts between the architects and residents, and the latter’s informal interventions. We approach these factors by referring to the highly popular 1980 TV series Vruć vetar, with the series acting as a valuable insight into the social and spatial patterns of ex-Yugoslavia. We use the series to demonstrate how Cerak Vinogradi were the result of tension existing between two frames: the first defined through urban and architectural design and unsuccessfully defended by the architects, and the second which involved deficiencies in construction and apartment space, inciting in turn the user interventions. Demonstrating all the alienation the housing policy of the day resulted in, we treat the informal interventions not as a response to the invisibility of users but as a supplement to this very same policy. Referring to the Lacanian theory of socio-symbolic order (the ‘big Other’), we interpret the user interventions as a crucial part of the existing order, placing them in the context of the cynical logic of self-management socialism.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Blundell Jones, P., Petrescu, D., Till, J. (2005) Architecture and Participation, London: Spon Press.
Borovnica, N. (1980) Memo addressed to Executive Council of Čukarica Municipality, AMM, Folder 4.
Colomina, B. (1992) The split wall: domestic voyeurism, in Colomina, B. (ed.) Sexuality and Space, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 72-129.
Conditions for the design and construction of Cerak Vinogradi housing estate (1977) Personal Archives of architect Milenija Marušić (hereafter AMM), Folder 4.
Društveni dogovor o osnovama stambene politike u Beogradu (1976) Službeni list grada Beograda, No. 23, pp. 1265-79.
Institute for Architecture and Urbanism of Serbia (1978) Cerak: Prikaz modela izgradnje i konkursnog urbanističko arhitektonskog rešenja naselja Cerak Vinogradi u Beogradu , Belgrade: Institut za arhitekturu i urbanizam Srbije.
Institute for Architecture and Urbanism of Serbia (1992) Memo addressed to Municipality of Čukarica, AMM, Folder 10.
Jenkins, P., Forsyth L. (eds.) (2009) Architecture, Participation and Society, London: Routledge.
Jovanović, S. (1975) Stambena izgradnja u razvoju Beograda, Urbanizam Beograda, No. 30, p. 6-8.
Kerkez, M. (1985) Letter addressed to Institute for Architecture and Urbanism of Serbia, Mesna zajednica “Vinogradi” and the Council of the Chesnutt Street No. 3, AMM, Folder 10.
Kroll, L. (1987) An Architecture of Complexity, Cambridge MA: The MIT Press.
Kušić, A. (2014) Promena urbanističko-arhitektonske paradigme na primeru beogradskih stambenih naselja: period jugoslovenskog kasnog socijalizma (1965-1991. godine), PhD thesis, University of Belgrade: Faculty of Architecture.
Marušić, D., Marušić, M. (1981) Confidential protest letter addressed to Col. Đurić and Prof. Martinović, AMM, Folder 5.
Marušić, M. (1980) Memo addressed to Napred Construction Company and supervising offices of YPA and Belgrade’s Construction Bureau, AMM, Folder 4.
Marušić, M. (1982a) Extract from the Textual description of the Test and Research Centre project, AMM, Folder “OIC”.
Marušić, M. (1982b) Memo addressed to the supervising offices of YPA and Belgrade’s Construction Bureau, AMM, Folder 10.
Marušić, M. (1984a) Memo addressed to the Mesna zajednica “Vinogradi”, AMM, Folder 10.
Marušić, M. (1984b) Memo addressed to YPA, AMM, Folder 10.
Marušić, M. (1987) Textual material for the film shooting – Test and Research Centre, AMM, Folder “OIC”.
Marušić, M., Čanak, M. (1988) Memo addressed to YPA, AMM, Folder “OIC”.
Marušić, M., Marušić, D. (1987) Cerak 1 i Cerak 2: Cerak u 20 slika, in Jarić, M. (ed.) 40 godina građevinarstva Socijalističke Republike Srbije, Belgrade: Izgradnja, pp. 127-36.
McKean, J. (2004) Giancarlo De Carlo: Layered Places, Stuttgart: Edition Axel Menges.
Opšti društveni dogovor o stambenoj politici i usmeravanju prostornog razvoja grada u realizaciji stambene politike (1974) Službeni list grada Beograda, No. 10, pp. 699-707.
Republican Committee for Urbanism, Housing and Communal Activities et al. (1982) Report on the results of the housing policy, Archives of urbanist Vladimir Macura, Folder “Party Documents”.
Salecl, R. (1998) (Per)Versions of Love and Hate, London: Verso.
Salecl, R. (2002) The Spoils of Freedom: Psychoanalysis and Feminism after the Fall of Socialism, London: Routledge.
Tankosić, N. (1982) Report from the joint inspection of Cerak Vinogradi rooftops conducted by the representatives of investors, architects and the developer, AMM, Folder 4.
Till, J. (2009) Architecture Depends, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Till J. (2010) Foreword, in Jenkins P., Forsyth L. (eds.) Architecture, Participation and Society, London: Routledge, pp. xi-xii.
Transcripts of the 4th Meeting of the Parliament of the Cerak Community (1981), Historical Archives of Belgrade, Fund Minelgradnja, Housing Commission, Folder 79.
Upton, D. (1998) Architecture in the United States, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Visitation logs for the apartments exibited in the TRC (1986) AMM, Folder “OIC”.
Vruć vetar (1980), Vruć Vetar (1980) - CELA Serija, 9:15:44, https://www.youtube.com /watch?v=UYyPOnWFNU4.
Yugoslav Institute for Town Planning and Housing (1987) Stambena politika i stanovanje u SFRJ, Belgrade: Jugoslovenski institut za Urbanizam i stanovanje.
Žižek S. (2002) Did Somebody Say Totalitarianism? Five Interventions in the (Mis)Use of a Notion, London: Verso.
Žižek, S. (2006) The Parallax View, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
ISSN 0354-4605 (Print)
ISSN 2406-0860 (Online)
COBISS.SR-ID 98807559