In socialist Yugoslavia, order was the norm. Every once in a while, there would be a visionary architectural feat that breaks the code and disturbs the grid. Such is the powerful building of SIV in New Belgrade, modern-day Serbia, which demonstrates the full glory of the fallen Pan-Slavic nation. The luxury of socialism should be nothing more than a paradox. It isn’t supposed to exist. Yet, this building is a true testament to it, in a city of cracked concrete and glitchy billboards, extreme class inequality, institutional corruption and urbicides. As if Yugoslavia was an alien civilisation that had landed its divine spaceship.
Igor Vukičević
Igor Vukičević (b. 1993) is a student at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad. He is an active member of the Association of Novi Sad Architects and the regional platform Tristotrojka. His hobby is exploring and examining the world through photography and writing.