Page 3 - Catalogue English.cdr

PALACE SERBIA

Cultural Monument
Palace of Federal Executive Council, Novi Beograd

The idea of building the Palace of Federal
Executive Council of the Federal People’s Re- COMPETITION
public of Yugoslavia coincides with the begin-
ning of the formation of a new city on the left
bank of the Sava River, which was supposed The competition was officially announced on
to become the capital of the new socialist re- January 1st 1947. Its main feature was the
public. fact that the competition was quite unusu-
The history of the construction of the Palace al with regard to the pre-war general public
demonstrates the complexity of political, so- competition announcements. All citizens of
cial, cultural and artistic circumstances in Yu- the FPRY, as well as all state design organiza-
goslavia in the period from 1947 until 1962. tions, had the right to participate regardless
This period is of special importance for ana- of the professional qualifications. According
lysing and understanding the entire post-war to the Competition terms and conditions the
Yugoslav architecture. Years after the World Palace was understood not only as architec-
War II are marked with strong impact of so- tural but also as urban landmark of the fu-
cial-realism models. There was a creative ture Novi Beograd.
stagnation during the 1950s caused by great The first price was awarded to design bureau
economic and political crisis and at that point from Zagreb with architect Vladimir Potočn-
exactly the clear turn in the field of architec- jak as the head of the team and other mem-
ture was made towards models and impacts bers Zlatko Nojman, Anton Urlih and Dragica
of the western Europe. After the counselling Perak. Potočnjak’s solution represented a
in Dubrovnik in 1950 the road to modern composition scheme of the building with a
architecture was officially opened and the base in a form of letter H consisting of two
fact that the designs of several important concave wings connected by transversal,
state buildings, construction of which was slightly buckled tract (the impact of Le Cor-
commenced in the 1940s in socialist-real- busier’s design for the Tsentrosoyuz Building
ism style, were amended and completed in in Moscow from 1928 built as a monument
the spirit of international architectural style, dedicated to young socialist Russia is evi-
speaks in favour of the above mentioned. dent).