Cosmic Concrete Dreams: Explore Skopje’s Brutalist Masterpieces
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An essential, yet disturbing, reason for Skopje’s large concentration of Brutalist and Modernist architecture is the 1963 earthquake that destroyed the city.
The original complex of the Saints Cyril and Methodius University was built in the 1940s. The post-earthquake rebuild gave an opportunity for the facility to expand, however, and to that end Tange’s Master Plan for the city moved Skopje University to a new location, where there was space for a more ambitious campus layout. The young Slovenian architect Marko Mušič and his team won the open design competition, with a four-year construction process beginning in 1970. Mušič’s design was oriented around a central square, where the concrete towers and facades of the university buildings take on playful and sometimes almost church-like shapes; facing in towards a Modernist statue of the Saints Cyril and Methodius, brothers from this region who in the 9th century were responsible for creating the first Slavic alphabet.
Skopje is considered ‘a dream world’ for lovers of cosmic concrete communist-era buildings, also known as Brutalist Architecture. Brutalism is a style that emerged in the 1950s and grew out of the early-20th century modernist movement. Brutalist buildings are characterised by their massive, monolithic and ‘blocky’ appearance with a rigid geometric style and large-scale use of poured concrete.
Brutalist architecture in Skopje is a prominent feature that showcases the city’s unique identity. Built primarily in the 1960s and 1970s, these concrete structures represent a significant period of architectural experimentation and innovation in the city.
An essential, yet disturbing, reason for Skopje’s large concentration of Brutalist and Modernist architecture is the 1963 earthquake that destroyed 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. Some of the most important examples of brutalist architecture in Skopje include the Central Post Office, the University St. Cyril and Methodius, Student Dormitory Goce Delcev, Skopje Transport Centre, the Skopje Archive etc.
Half a century later, much of this work would be hidden by a second attempt at reinventing Skopje. The divisive “Skopje 2014” project sought to replace Skopje’s international Modernist architecture with what was perceived a more monumental and historical style. Sheer concrete walls were covered with plaster panels. Brutalist porticos were replaced by neo-classical pillars. Still, many of Skopje’s 1960s Brutalist masterpieces remain on display.
Central Post Office – Address: Boulevard VMRO, Skopje 1000
Central Post Office
The Central Post Office is easily the most famous of Skopje’s brutalist buildings, an unique structure that resembled a fortified, concrete castle with a spiky central dome. Designed by Macedonian architect Janko Konstantinov, who had previously worked with the legendary Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, the modernist building was relentlessly avant-garde and futuristic. The structure was built in two stages: the main building and tower, inspired by a nearby fortress across the city’s Vardar river, was built in 1974, while its central circular element, described as a brutalist flower or insect, was completed in 1982. Inside, underneath the dome, the building featured Cubist murals by Macedonian artist Borko Lazeski, depicting the horrors of the earthquake and posterior rebirth of the town.
A devastating fire in 2013 saw both the murals and cupola destroyed, leaving the building in serious disrepair, roofless, and exposed to the elements. While local and international conservationists are trying to fight for the building’s preservation, the future of Skopje’s Post Office remains uncertain. Due to its placement at a busy intersection, the post office is rather difficult to photograph, but if you make your way up to Kale Fortress, you’ll be rewarded with the bird’s-eye view of this extraordinary building.
Saints Cyril and Methodius University (UKIM)
Address: Boulevard Goce Delchev 9, Skopje 1000
Goce Delchev Student Dormitory
The Goce Delchev Student Dormitory was designed by architect Georgi Konstantinovski, and took its name from the anti-Ottoman revolutionary of the same name, who was active at the turn of the 20th century and is celebrated as a Macedonian national hero.
Address: Londonska, Skopje 1000
Konstantinovski’s dormitory building was completed in two phases, with the first side opening in 1971 and the second in 1977. The concept was for a complex that could provide affordable accommodation for as many as 1,200 students, and Konstantinovski achieved this with a Brutalist and almost monumental form: consisting ultimately of four 13-storey towers in rotating alignment around a central plaza, and joined together by elevated passages that created an aerial square above.
Transportation Center Skopje
After the city’s former train station was destroyed in the 1963 earthquake, the newly reimagined and rebuilt transport hub that replaced it would form a key feature in Tange’s City Centre Master Plan. Relocated to sit directly on the existing train line between Serbia and Greece, construction of the new station began in 1971 under the guidance of Tange himself. It was an ambitious project, and would take a decade to complete: with ten platforms on a raised elevation above street level. The interior spaces beneath featured ticket desks and a restaurant, all decorated in Tange’s trademark minimal Brutalist style.
Address: Bojmija 4, Skopje 1000
Hydrometeorological Service Building
North Macedonian Hydrometeorological Service, which was established in 1947. The main building of the Hydrometeorological Service Institute is located on the northern edge of Skopje. Designed by architect Krsto Todorovski and built from 1972 to 1975, the building consists of a series of office blocks constructed in a Brutalist style, and rising in the centre into a triangular stack formed from suspended units positioned between three cylindrical pillars.
Address: Skupi 18, Skopje 1000
National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia
The Central Registry building was included as part of Tange’s city plan, as a home for the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia – a function that it still performs. It took the form of concrete and glass towers, with a minimalist design, the taller tower rising to a height of roughly 35 metres. These administrative blocks were then connected to a horizontally-arranged body for public-facing offices and archives. Designed by architects Radomir Lalović and Olga Papeš, and approved by Tange himself, the Central Registry was built between 1971 and 1975. A year after its opening, the building’s lobby would also receive a notable work of revolutionary art: a mural titled “Fresco for the National Liberation War,” measuring 8 by 3.7 metres, and created by the abstract painter Borko Lazeski.
Address: Bulevar Kuzman Josifovski Pitu, Skopje, 1000
Macednian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts (MANU) was established post-earthquake, in 1967. Following a design competition, construction of the academy’s facility in Skopje began in 1974 under the native Macedonian architect Boris Čipan. His design incorporated bare concrete facades alongside elevated verandas and extended balconies that are reminiscent of vernacular folk architecture – a nod to the history and heritage of the region. Opened in 1976, the academy building is spacious and light inside, and features a number of notable artworks, including a mural by Gligor Čemerski, and stained glass windows by the artist Borko Lazeski.
Address: Boulevard Krste Petkov Misirkov, Skopje 1000
Nikola Karev High School
In parallel to his work on the Telecommunications Centre, Janko Konstantinov also oversaw the creation of a new school between 1968 and 1970. The Nikola Karev High School stood in the Karposh residential area, west of the city centre. This Brutalist school building was composed of a series of upright cylindrical and rectangular units, while alongside the main building were positioned a separate open-air amphitheatre and a sports hall. The Nikola Karev High School was designed to accommodate 1,400 students, and continues that function today.
Address: Nikola Rusinski 2, Skopje 1000
City Trade Centre (GTC)
Skopje’s Gradski Trgovski Centar (GTC) – meaning “City Trade Centre” – was built in a central location close to the city’s Macedonia Square. The design competition was won by Živko Popovski, who between 1969 and 1973 oversaw the construction of a large multilevel complex, including interior shopping spaces, open-air market areas, and a series of stepped terraces facing out onto greenery. It remains the largest and busiest shopping centre in the city.
More recently though, the GTC became a point of contention following the onset of the Skopje 2014 project – when the government decided to hide the building’s original exterior and aesthetics beneath a new layer of decorative pillars and domes in a neoclassical style, while also adding new statues onto the roof. In response, a protest movement was formed and gained support also from the Association of Macedonian Architects (AAM), and to date, the GTC maintains its original, if somewhat aged, appearance.
Address: 13 November Quay, Skopje 1000