Contemporary Serbian Orthodox church architecture: Architectural competitions since 1990

Abstract

This paper focuses on the architectural competitions for Orthodox Christian churches in Serbia since 1990, both on the analysis of the designs submitted and the competition requirements. The first competition for an Orthodox church in Serbia after World War II was announced for Pristina in 1991. After that, competitions for the temple in Cukarica, Novi Beograd, Nis, Aleksinac and Krusevac were conducted. Thanks to the fact that architectural competitions allow a greater degree of creative freedom to the architects than regular practice, various solutions were offered, from replicas of models from architectural history and tradition to fully non-traditional proposals. Depending on the relationship to tradition, architectural design approaches can be classified into three main groups: radically modernizing, conservatively traditionalist, and compromising. Of the six competitions conducted, four churches were built, which are among the most architecturally successful newer churches in Serbia. This points to the importance of the implementation of the architectural competition in this field of architecture. The diversity of the award-winning projects shows that there is awareness of the possibility for the further development of church architecture, favouring a moderate approach.