Abstract This paper addresses the fundamental positions on the environment that shaped socialist Yugoslav architectural culture through an approach grounded in the convergence of nature, cultural patterns, and social values, in the context of an authentic self-managing socialist society. Starting from the premise that environmental sciences became integral to broader socio-political discourse in Yugoslavia through dialectical practice and the doctrine of Marxist humanism, this study examines how they provided both a social foundation and relevance for the humanization of the living environment. By contextualizing Yugoslav architecture from the 1950s to the 1980s across diverse architectural narratives—including vernacular environmentalisms, organic environmentalism, and approaches inspired by cultural anthropology and urban sociology—the paper demonstrates how a dialectical understanding of culture and society as integral components of the environment fostered a critically creative practice within Yugoslav architecture. Committed to genuine humanization, Yugoslav architecture turned towards the environment, which was no longer viewed merely as a resource but as a cultural, existential, and normative category of crucial importance for the overall “quality of life”. Finally, this paper positions Yugoslav architectural discourse, developed within the culture of humanist Marxism, as a historically and theoretically significant model for understanding dialectical socio-ecological dynamics, framing environmental issues as an integrated symbiosis of natural and social relations and highlighting the interdependent processes that shape and influence the living environment.
Danica Stojiljković (Tue,) studied this question.