Slumbering Concrete

The third episode "Split, Where Plan Meets Chaos" visits Split, a fascinating example of urban continuity from antiquity to modernity (from ancient culture to socialist modernism). We are focusing on the unfinished urban phenomenon of Split 3, one of the most advanced socialist modernist settlements in the world. The complex was built under the Slovene team of architects Mušič, Bežan and Starc in the 1970s following the modernist principles of freestanding cities. However, simultaneously to harmoniously proportioned skyscrapers of Split 3, the space is taken by unregulated individual construction sites. Planning and deregulation coexist, exemplary order clashes with chaos – the city and its antithesis. Opposing tendencies intertwine, and with the passing of time one prevails. We read the city as a reflection of society in the fascinating architectural collage of Split.