The Future as a Project: Doxiadis in Skopje

In the year when Skopje commemorates 60 years from the catastrophic earthquake that ruined the city on July 26, 1963, the exhibition The Future as a Project – Doxiadis in Skopje aims to bring into the spotlight the extraordinary story of Skopje’s reconstruction process. Its particular focus is the role and contribution of the Greek architect and planner Constantinos A. Doxiadis.

As one of the many international experts invited by the United Nations who led the rebuilding process of Skopje, aside from the strong professional commitment of Doxiadis, the archives reveal his deep empathy for the suffering city. His personal and his company’s work, their reports, detailed surveys of the areas affected by the earthquake, housing studies, diagrams, words and thoughts…, all meaningfully and equally contributed to the development of the Master Plan for the reconstruction of Skopje.

Becoming a strategic tool for the city’s transformation into a cosmopolitan metropolis, the Master Plan paved the road to the unprecedented construction boom that followed in Skopje in the late 60s and 70s, turning “the city of world solidarity” into a capital of late modern architecture and planning. Inspired by the spirit of the times, the narrative of the new beginning, and the reconstruction euphoria, international and local urban planners and architects jointly designed new radical cityscapes. Although it has been subject to re-evaluation during the recent decade, this unique period in Skopje’s turbulent history is still struggling for acknowledgment and recognition and is subject to dramatic and destructive alterations.

Five years since it was first exhibited at the Benaki Museum in Athens, presented as a large survey exhibition, conference, and a book, The Future as a Project – Doxiadis in Skopje arrives in Skopje. Conceptually enriched with the artworks donated by Greek artists to the Museum of Contemporary Art’s collection, we hope that it will not only help recover the memory of Skopje’s reconstruction achievements, but also contribute to reviving architecture’s potential for, and commitment to, social responsibility.