The dominance of social ideas and active advocacy for the rights and position of workers in the new socio-political order after the Second World War, around the world and in the new socialist Yugoslavia, is dominated by aspirations to provide workers with housing worthy of their merits in the renewal and upbuilding of the state. It is also a time of radical changes that were initiated by the processes of urbanization, demographic and social changes, especially the sudden increase of the population that is transitioning from agrarian to industrial economy. The war was followed by a period of intensive planned reconstruction throughout the country, primarily vital branches of industry, and then the reconstruction of war-ravaged Rijeka shipyards was carried out. Zloković’s competition work for the Workers’ Settlement of Kvarner Shipyards in Rijeka, a lesser-known project from the post-war period that is now available to researchers at the Milan Zloković Collection at the Belgrade City Museum, reveals a complex concept based on architectural solutions that contribute to housing quality and planning. urban base according to which the structure of the workers’ settlement for about 8000 inhabitants acquired the characteristics and physiognomy of the city – the permeation of private and public space. The location for the settlement included an area of about 40 hectares on a steep terrain in the hinterland of the coastal part of Brgudi, along which the railway route passed in the southern part, as the main traffic artery. The system of communications (network of streets and stairs), public areas and greenery is incorporated into the orthogonal generic matrix that gradually follows the slope of the terrain, between which are grouped residential zones – areas with several types of residential buildings (two-storey houses with courtyards, multi-family residential buildings and buildings for singles), and public – common facilities, such as a multipurpose hall, cinema, school and kindergarten, cooperative, shops, restaurants, clinic, with all the accompanying infrastructure.
Belgrade, Serbia
Kralja Milutina 33
1926–1927
Among several residential buildings designed for the Belgrade investor and owner Josif Šojat, an interpolated multi-storey building (residential building with rented apartments) in 33 Kralja Milutina Street stands out, with which Zloković brought the spirit of Mediterranean profane architecture into the Vračar city agglomeration, making several form gestures atypical for the previous Belgrade architecture.
