Shaping of Belgrade’s Residential Architecture in the Socialist Period

The period from the 1970s to the 1980s had a great demand for apartment construction in Belgrade. The study examines how state policies in socialist Yugoslavia shaped architectural design principles, and how these design frameworks influenced everyday social life, with focus on Belgrade area. The research procedure includes the following methods: content analysis of professional and scientific literature in the field of architecture, urbanism and sociology of housing, historical- descriptive analysis of urban policies and housing construction in the period 1970-1980, through a review of available normative acts, publications and documents, interpretation of architectural elements characteristic of the Belgrade School of Housing and theoretical synthesis of philosophical views on space and home, with critical application in the context of specific architectural practices. The aim is to examine the way in which the architecture of residential space in socialist Yugoslavia, and especially in Belgrade, influenced architectural design principles and how that affected the lifestyle of the population. Through this two-tier relationship - policy shaping architecture and architecture shaping society - the paper reveals housing as an active medium of social engineering. This paper provides a qualitative analysis of historical and architectural sources, with an interpretation of theoretical frameworks of architecture, urbanism and social philosophy.