FIAT building

The automotive industry of the first half of the 20th century was accompanied by a strong modernization process based on new technological and economic possibilities. In such an environment, modern architecture favored the presentation of modern achievements (products of the new industry), just as new car models were an appropriate attribute for a complete presentation of modern architectural achievements (house – machine). The Italian car industry FIAT has already shown engineering inventiveness through the construction of a new factory in Turin, opened in 1926, according to the project of the young architect and engineer Matté Trucco, through the modern architectural concept (introduction of a car on the fifth roof floor on which a testing track has been designed). In that context, Zloković’s design for a building, i.e., a car showroom, garage and service of FIAT in Belgrade from the end of the 1930s, can be interpreted, based on the influences of the Italian modern tradition but imbued with its own creative feature – structural rationality adapted to harmonious and proportional order. The architectural components of this building – a rounded wall surface, a monolithic facade made of red clinker tiles, white stone window frames and a roof terrace with a fence in the form of a deck – are attributed in architectural historiography to elements of Italian rationalism, but in Zloković’s characteristic elaboration they get an equally “industrialized” and “representative” expression harmonized with the character of the location.