engleski

Shopping as a Part of Political Agenda

This chapter explores the contextual sources that were referenced in the design and development of the Croatian shopping centre, while focusing on the social role that this typology has played in the construction of Croatia's socialist reality. In Yugoslavia, one of the constituent republics of which was Croatia, the shopping centre typology first appeared in the 1960s. At this time, state economic reforms that marked a conscious shift from a centrally planned economy towards a market economy were introduced. Along with these reforms, encouragement of consumer spending became one of the state's economic strategies. Throughout the country that was up until then ruled by a 'dictatorship over needs, ' the construction of numerous commercial facilities – from department stores to shopping centres – was initiated. These facilities, which were financed with public funds, became an indispensable component of urban planning. One could argue that the construction of these commercial centres to some extent represented the institutionalization of shopping and offers yet another example of the contradictions that characterized the bivalent political system of Yugoslavia, which continuously tried to balance its 'in-betweenness': in-between East and West, in-between socialism and market economy, in-between (promoted) socialist egalitarianism and consumerism. By analysing the examples of the erected shopping centres, this chapter examines the ways in which this architectural typology, although commercial in its very nature, established itself in a society where profit making alone was seen as a negative goal. The chapter finally also briefly outlines the fate of these buildings after the political shift of the 1990s.

architecture ; urban planning ; shopping ; modernity

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