North Macedonia Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale Revisits the Brutalist Architecture of Skopje

"The Republic of North Macedonia Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale is dedicated to the Brutalist architecture of its capital city, Skopje. This architectural movement has given the city a distinctive identity following the earthquake that struck in 1963. According to pavilion curator, architect Blagoja Bajkovski, in the aftermath of the disaster, Skopje embraced Brutalism from a variety of sources. One of the most prominent of these was Kenzo Tange's reconstruction plan,"

"The exhibition, titled Strada Brutalissima, recounts this identity, the events that shaped it, and the buildings that continue to represent it through a series of architectural models. Inspired by the 1980 Venice Architecture Biennale's Strada Novissima, the project reinterprets the concept of a curated "street," this time centered on Skopje's Brutalist heritage. We invite you to check out ArchDaily's comprehensive coverage of the 2025 Venice Biennale. The exhibition presents models of ten Brutalist buildings within"

Skopje's Brutalist architecture gained prominence after the 1963 earthquake and was shaped by international contributions including Kenzo Tange's 1965 reconstruction plan. The Republic of North Macedonia Pavilion presents Strada Brutalissima, an arrangement of ten architectural models reimagined as a curated 'street' that isolates buildings from their original contexts to prompt contemporary reinterpretation. The display foregrounds both architectural complexity and critical reflection through two fronts: the Graphic Biography Front, which highlights creative and formal values, and the Critical Reflection Front, which assembles short texts from twenty architects, urbanists, and thinkers. Both fronts engage with the question of distilling Skopje's Brutalist forms and latent intelligences.

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