Brutalist Ensemble


Both of these two buildings are designed by the same architect - Georgi Konstantinovski and are located on the same street in Skopje, Macedonia. They both manifest characteristics of brutalism, such as the use of raw concrete and expressive, monumental forms. I chose these two buildings as a way of engaging more closely with specific buildings, through research, drawings and photography. The building on this page is the city's archive, built in '68. I became fascinated with this simple, elegant yet somewhat ambiguous building, with its large surfaces of unadorned facades and repetition of geometric shapes. I made several drawings from the same angle, using different techniques, such as pencil, pen, watercolour and charcoal (only pen and pencil drawings are shown here) as well as analysing the geometric form of the structure.
Goce Delcev,  is the largest dormitory in Macedonia. Built in 1969, only a year after the City Archive. This represents Konstantinovski's greatest achievement. For this building I focused on drawings with mostly the same technique, (pen) but explored the building from different angles(I also have drawing in other techniques- charcoal and pencil are shown here).
It is a complex arrangement of four buildings, which together define a central public space (as a common space for the students); they are linked in the air by bridges. The bridges, together with the verticality of the repetitive facade elements, the pattern of protruding balconies and the 'beton brute' of the concrete materiality, result in a monumental building with a somewhat 'heroic' character. Although not loved by everyone, it is much admired by architects both at home and abroad - it has virtually become a landmark for the post-earthquake modernist architecture of the city. The dormitory is located right next to my high school, so I have passed by and admired this building every day for the past 4 years and I have realised that this is the sort of building you appreciate more, the more you look and the closer you engage with.




1 comment: