Ljiljana Blagojević's book is a welcome addition to the pioneering series of books on Central and Eastern European architecture that MIT Press initiated some years ago. Not only does the author bring to light surprising discoveries that have escaped the notice of previous historians of architectural modernism, but she succeeds in describing the specific situation of Serbian architecture in a way that connects it to European developments of the past as well as to theoretical debates of the present. This book restores Belgrade to its rightful place on the map of modernism.,
Ákos Moravánszky, Professor of Architectural Theory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and author of Competing Visions: Aesthetic Vision and Social Imagination in Central European Architecture
With this pioneering study of the Serbian modern movement, the MIT Press continues to uncover Eastern Europe's lost architectural cultures. The modern movement in Serbia was largely dominated in the 1930s by Milan Zloković, until now a virtually unknown figure in the West. His broad practice was complemented by the equally brilliant careers of Dragiša Brašovan and Nikola Dobrović. As Blagojević shows us, Serbian modernism oscillated throughout the decade between two opposed and somewhat surprising outside influences—the classic order of the Italian rationalist tradition and the dynamism of Czech constructivism.
Kenneth Frampton, Ware Professor of Architecture, Columbia University
Serbia has always been a hinge of Slavic resistance to domination from both the West and the East. Its troubled history emerges in the unique brand of modernism that this book so ably documents and discusses. Ljiljana Blagojević proves that the strength of this seminal movement of the twentieth century lay not in its universality, but in an adaptiveness its doctrinaire founders never imagined. An important, original study.
Lebbeus Woods, Professor of Architecture, The Cooper Union
This engaging book applies the international perspectives of Benjaminian critical theory and Lacanian post-structuralism to Serbian modern architecture. A wonderful 'transparency' ensues, of unbiased historical writing and lucid architectural analysis supported by revealing plans, photographs, and documents. This is a model scholarly monograph for the twenty-first century.
Peter Kaufman, Boston Architectural Center
