Skopje, the capital city of the Republic of Macedonia, is home to many of the best international examples of Brutalist architecture. Once a part of the former Yugoslavia, the city features the work of architectural visionaries such as Kenzo Tange, Janko Konstantinov, and Marko Mušič. The “Modernist Skopje Map” is Blue Crow Media’s most recent map in a series of publications covering architectural history in former Yugoslavia.
An essential, yet disturbing, reason for Skopje’s concentration of Brutalist and Modernist architecture is the 1965 earthquake that destroyed sixty-five percent of the city. In an effort to redevelop the area, Japanese architect Kenzo Tange was asked to lead a team of Japanese and Yugoslavian architects and conceptualize a modern city plan for Skopje.
With Tange at the helm, many Brutalist architects were drawn to the city and commissioned to design Skopje’s essential public structures, government buildings, transportation hubs, and educational institutions. The “Modernist Skopje Map” is a carefully curated mix of map, architectural photography, and historical information that guides the inquisitive architecture-lover through Skopje from one stark concrete construction to the next.
Not only will visitors leave with a sense of the city as a whole, but they will also gain essential knowledge of the Modernist and Brutalist periods in architectural history and the influence those periods have on contemporary building types.
Skopje is just one of many international cities that are home to a variety of phenomenal architectural examples from this period. Blue Crow Media’s collection of Brutalist architecture maps span the entire globe from Boston to London to Paris to Sydney. More architectural sightseeing adventures can be found on their website.
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