The International Conference Architecture and Ideology

28 – 29, Septembre, Belgrade, Serbia

Organised by: Faculty of Architecture University of Belgrade and Association
of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

Deadline for Abstracts: April 15, 2012

Thematic Frame of the Conference:

Space and time are inherent parts of our lives (they precede us and outlive
us, we are always in them, never on the outside). That is why philosophers
have relentlessly tried to find out about their nature, and ideologies have
tried to get a key to possessing these two media and control them. Actions
in space are the result of complex interest interaction between
politicians, investors, city planners and architects, on the one hand, and
those who enjoy the results of their actions, on the other. City
development means solid construction, therefore mistakes are hard or
impossible to amend.

That makes the test of the role of ideology in the fate of a city a good
enough reason for exchanging opinions on this topic and for an attempt to
critically overview numerous – direct, indirect, hinted and hidden –
manifestations of ideology in the 20th century city development.

Conference participants are expected – each from his/her professional
angle, with reference to a century worth of experience – to provide their
contributions on shedding light on mutual impact of architecture and
ideology – with all its positive and negative consequences and
contributions – and to bring out hypotheses on the future of that
particular, specific and vital relation.

Conference organizers offer four topic segments and give points of
reference to simplify the role of participants in multidisciplinary opinion
exchange.

Topic segments:

1. Ideological context of architecture

- Conceptual issues of ideology; 20th century ideologies and their characteristics (historical, philosophical; sociological, political, psychological);
- Emergence, survival and disappearance of the main ideology patterns in
society and architecture;
- Duration of ideology systems and a resistance to change;
- Changes in meaning and use of physical structures due to ideological
assumptions;
- Ideology matrix influence on general public, value systems, awareness
of city environment and its shaping;
- The ideological interpretation and evaluation of the history of architecture;
- The ideological concepts and regulation of the built environment;
- Centralization as ideological stronghold;
- Ranko Radović and his interpretation of the ideological context of architecture.

2. City and power

- Holders of power (political, financial, technological, media) and urban development;
subjects (politicians, businessmen, city planners and people in general);
- Ideological interests and goals, and their accomplishment in architecture;
- (Non) participation in shaping a city destiny;
- Pressures on designs, unruly actions in taking the city space (illegal construction of
both the inapproachable and the marginalized);
- Ideological causes of demolishing the city fabric;
- Spatial standards and social groups;
- The rights to housing, work and leisure;
- Accessibility of scarce city assets;
- Disposal of the city land and real estate;
- Types of power alienation and how to overcome them.

3. Morphology and ideological patterns

- Doctrines in architecture and their positive/negative impact on a city;
- Criteria of urban forming (urban norms and standards in designing) and tools (pre-computer and computer approach to planning and designing);
- City planning (interest contradictions, conflicting of aims and means);
- Planners (concept creators or mere executors);
- The idealism or pragmatism of planners’ visions;
- Urban form as a result of conflict/harmony between ideology and architecture;
- Physical structures and public city space through a relation between ideology and architecture;
- City center and its outskirts in the ideological context;
- Typological patterns of housing and public structures deriving from ideology;
- Relations between the new and the inherited, the progressive and the conservative;

4. Designers and ideology

- Figures of the power and city planners and architects;
- The influence of the ideology on the design process;
- The ideology objectification through projects - case studies.

Conference language: English

Final papers for conference should be max eight pages of text (about 14 400 characters
without spacing).

You are invited to submit an abstract for an individual paper relevant to the conference theme as described above. The deadline for abstracts is 15th April, 2012. Abstracts for individual papers should be no longer than 300 words.

Please submit your abstract by email to adress arch.ideol2012gmail.com

Accepted abstracts will be published on the website Faculty of Architecture University of Belgrade www.arh.bg.ac.rs

Refereeing of papers will be processed by members of Scientific Committee.
All papers accepted for presentation at the conference will be published in
the conference proceedings (on DVD).

For general information please contact the conference secretary:

Konstantin Petrović, adminulupuds.org.rs

Conference Chair Vladimir Mako, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture
University of Belgrade, Serbia.

Conference Coordinators Mirjana Roter Blagojević, Faculty of Architecture
University of Belgrade mirjana.rotergmail.com and Marta Vukotić Lazar,
Association of Applied Arts Artists and Designers of Serbia,
marta.vukoticgmaol.com

Conference Partners:

Faculty of Philosophy University of Belgrade; Institute of Architecture and
Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia; Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi
Sad, Department for Architecture and Town Planning; and Ilija
MilosavljevićKolarac Foundation.

Timeline

April 15th deadline call for abstracts; April 30th notification of acceptance;
July 15th 2012 deadline for full paper submission.

Further information: http://www.arh.bg.ac.rs/code/navigate.asp?Id=2821