VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE AND NATIONAL IDENTITY: BOSNIA AND MACEDONIA REVISITED
Kujtim ELEZI, Nuran SALIU
Abstract
Many scholars share the opinion that the creation of the national identity is considered to be one of the most ambitious projects. This is completed in different ways, through language, literature, new policies in everyday life and in education, the production of new literature in art., etc. Others think that tradition also plays an important part as a means of creating identity. They even go that far as to say that even if it does not exist, it is their job to invent it, with the reason the same (invented) tradition to fulfill the ideals of the nation or the state itself. On the other hand, architects are convinced that architecture can be implicated in the construction of identity. Architects often highlight not only the potential of architecture to convey a political message, but they also insist on proving that architecture has a decisive role in creating a national identity.
For this reason, the first part of this paper explores the implication of architecture and the political agenda (ideology) in the construction of the nation's identity. Dusan Grabrijan as an architect explores Bosnian architecture and the way Bosnian architecture should be involved in creating national identity, especially after the WW2. The research primarily follows the writings of Grabrijan, through which the architectural wealth of Bosnia is first clarified, and then this (national) architectural wealth is examined how to be used in the agenda of creating the national identity. The theoretical aspect examined by the architect is be conveyed through architectural examples.
The second part of this paper clarifies the (institutional) commitment of Grabrijan in 1949 in the fieldwork in Macedonia, to first identify the values of vernacular architecture, and then argue the thesis that its values are the basis of the creation of national identity. If the latter is not strongly argued, then Grabrijan leaves the path open so that in the future, other authors will make numerous attempts to create national identity through the architecture created over the centuries in the country. Recently, Grabrijan used to draw the same parallel between architecture and political ideology both in Bosnia and Macedonia.
Pages: 149 - 156