modernıstherıtage
22
Brutal Legacy * The Central Post Office’s nomination to the 7 Most Endangered programme 2021 was submitted by the Institute for Research in Environment, Civil Engineering and Energy (IECE). The state-owned joint-stock company supports it for postal traffic ‘POST of North Macedonia’Skopje, the Ministry of Culture of North Macedonia, Fraunhofer IBP, and the consultant Dr. Georgi Georgiev, both based in Germany.
Sculpting and moulding concrete in new and exciting ways was one of French-Swiss architect Le Corbusier’s passions. His vision would be reinterpreted into what would become known as Brutalism, from the French béton brut: the rough use of concrete in architecture with little or no excess decoration. Brutalism quickly conquered the world and brought us some of the most disliked council estates and office buildings in existence. From the 1950s, behemoths made of endless rows of modular apartments and offices in grey, monotonous forms invaded our cities and suburbs. The structures were supposed to capture a bright, new future in which humanity’s ambitions harmoniously blended with modern design. The buildings
would not look out of place on another planet or in another time, reflecting the optimism of the period. However, the people living and working in them usually did not share the positive sentiment. Almost as quickly as they had become fashionable, Brutalist buildings were remodelled, abandoned, or demolished. It seems that the enchantment of the Brutalist style was
nowhere as strong and longlasting as in South East Europe. The larger-than-life designs were concrete evidence of the establishment of a new, modern society guided by communist principles. Times, however, have changed after the fall of the Iron Curtain. The impressive marvels that once were symbols of the advancement of the masses now look soulless and strangely out of place in a world that has moved on.
