Socialist Yugoslavia was a country suspended between civilizations, political systems, and Cold War blocs. It produced a remarkable body of modern architecture, which similarly defies easy classification. This book explores the historical “in-betweenness” of Yugoslav modernism and the various strategies architects used to mediate their own position between the different—sometimes directly opposed—concepts of life, culture, practice, and time. The best among them created uniquely syncretic spaces and buildings that blurred the lines between the established categories of modernism. Wolfgang Thaler’s photos capture the richness and complexity of these projects, resilient in face of their often melancholy state today.

Photographs by: Wolfgang Thaler