Indeterminacy in architecture - case study of the Miseluk project

Abstract

In the absence of an established city planning strategy, the initial post-war urban development of the SFRY was founded on the principles of CIAM?s ?Functional City?, which soon proved inadequate in responding to individual user needs and in reflecting the collective interests of the young socialist state. This paper positions the search for a new spatial expression of the young socialist state within the global architectural discourse of the second half of the twentieth century, which shifted towards more variable, open and indeterminate architectural models employing various forms of user participation. The characteristics of a new approach in Yugoslav architectural and urban planning practice are examined through the case study of an unrealised project for the Miseluk zone in Novi Sad developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The aim of this paper is to analyse the socialist response to a dominant theme of architectural discourse that is once again gaining traction in the theory and practice of contemporary architects, in order to establish a basis for the further development of these ideas in the contemporary post-socialist context. The research reveals a direction for urban planning practice based on user participation, which enables a higher level of versatility or multivariance of the design concept as a response to the individual and changing needs of users, but also as a way of achieving the resilience, i.e., adaptability of architecture in the face of unpredictable social trends.