Memoryscapes of Post-Yugoslavia: Toward a Typology of Monumental Semiosis

PhD Project by Ena Kukić

Research Question

This dissertation investigates how memory is inscribed in space through architectural form and spatial presence in the post-Yugoslav context. What kind of spatial framework underpins collective memory in this region—and how can architecture serve as both a medium and a record of memorialization? The project seeks to outline a typology of memoryscapes grounded in regional practices, using semiotic analysis to interpret how meaning is layered or transformed across different historical and political contexts. It traces a lineage from medieval stećci, through Yugoslav-era spomenici, to contemporary monuments commemorating the wars of the 1990s. It further asks how these memoryscapes function within contested histories—how they are used, misused, or neglected. Ultimately, the study explores how a typological and semiotic reading of monuments can illuminate architecture’s capacity to embody and contest collective memory.

Fig 1: An early 70s conceptual sketch of one of the 'monster head' elements for the Čačak monument by Bogdan Bogdanović.

© Architekturzentrum Wien

Research and Theoretical Field

Situated at the intersection of architectural typology, memory studies, and semiotics, this research builds on the conceptual frameworks of hauntology (Derrida), postmemory (Hirsch), and just memory (Nguyen) to reflect on how space holds traces of unresolved or repressed pasts. The project engages with Alois Riegl’s distinctions between intended and historical monuments, proposing a critical re-interpretation in which unintended memoryscapes—structures not designed for commemoration—are reclassified as indexical signs (in Peircean semiotics) within the mnemonic field. This reading expands the architectural discourse on monuments by foregrounding the layering of memory across time.

Methods

A multi-layered methodological framework grounded in typological and semiotic analysis of architectural case studies is employed, supported by diagrammatic representation through axonometric drawings. Axonometry is used not merely for visualization but as an analytical tool—a means to reveal spatial relationships and formal continuities within built structures.

The semiotic approach is based on Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic theory of signs, particularly the category of the index, which provides a conceptual foundation for identifying unintended monuments as valid memoryscapes—architectural forms that, while not designed for commemoration, embody historical traces and collective meaning.

The research combines in-situ spatial analysis through field observation, historical and archival research using textual and visual sources, typological comparison across periods, and semiotic interpretation of architectural form. In addition, a series of model-making workshops conducted with architecture students served as an exploratory method for examining the formal language of spomenici. Through constructing models at various scales and in diverse materials and techniques, these workshops facilitated a deeper understanding of the spatial and symbolic logic of these monuments and provided an experimental, practice-based dimension to the study. All sites are examined as part of a broader spatial grammar of memory, showing how architecture encodes and transmits collective memory over time.

Fig. 2: Models of spomenici built in the elective course Architectural Models (2021–2023), led by Ena Kukić and Iulius Popa.

© KOEN Institut

Results and Findings

The study identifies a consistent typological thread within the region’s memorial architecture—one that is not confined to official monuments but also includes unintended memoryscapes emerging from everyday structures. These sites, often overlooked or informally remembered, function as indexical signs bearing traces of collective memory. Crucially, this typological continuity unfolds across a region of shared yet contested history, where ethnic divisions and post-war national borders obscure a common architectural and commemorative language. The research shows that despite political fragmentation, many memoryscapes retain spatial and symbolic characteristics that transcend state lines, affirming a shared cultural heritage marked by both tensions and continuities.

The research reveals that in the post-Yugoslav context, memoryscapes operate less as fixed commemorative objects and more as open typologies, adaptable and layered, whose meaning is shaped through time, use, and reinterpretation. This approach challenges traditional taxonomies of memorial architecture and advocates for a broader recognition of mnemonic value in spatial typologies not conventionally seen as monuments.

Contribution to Knowledge

This dissertation offers a comprehensive account of the spatial framework of collective memory in the post-Yugoslav region—spanning a wide geographical range, a long historical arc from the medieval period to the present, and a diverse typological field that includes both intended and unintended memorial architectures. Its key contribution lies in reframing unintended monuments—such as everyday structures marked by use, trauma, or transformation—as legitimate and valuable carriers of collective memory, analyzed through a spatial-semiotic lens grounded in Peirce’s sign theory.

By foregrounding architecture as both a medium of memory and a site of ideological contestation, the dissertation extends the theoretical understanding of memorial architecture as a dynamic, layered, and contextually embedded practice. It further argues for the role of architectural memoryscapes as active agents in transitional justice and the future of post-conflict coexistence, offering a framework for spatial reconciliation that transcends contemporary ethnic and national divisions. Finally, the research integrates underrepresented regional narratives into global discourses on memory and typological theory, repositioning post-Yugoslav spatial practices as vital to the evolving understanding of how architecture mediates collective remembrance and cultural identity.

Fig. 3: Axonometric drawings of unintentional monuments – Kiosk K67, KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture, and Alipašino Polje housing Block

© author

Key References

Assmann, Aleida: Cultural Memory and Western Civilization: Functions, Media, Archives, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2011.
Assmann, Jan: Das kulturelle Gedächtnis: Schrift, Erinnerung und politische Identität in frühen Hochkulturen, C.H. Beck: München 1992.
Derrida, Jacques: Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International, Routledge: London / New York 1994.
Halbwachs, Maurice: On Collective Memory, transl. by Lewis A. Coser, University of Chicago Press: Chicago 1992.
Hirsch, Marianne: The Generation of Postmemory: Writing and Visual Culture After the Holocaust, Columbia University Press: New York 2012.
Lechner, Andreas: Thinking Design – Blueprint for an Architecture of Typology, Park Books: Zürich 2021.
Lynch, Kevin: The Image of the City, MIT Press: Cambridge, MA 1960.
Nguyen, Viet Thanh: Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA 2016.
Nora, Pierre: “Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Mémoire”, in: Representations 26 (1989), pp. 7–24.
Peirce, Charles Sanders: The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, Vols. I–VIII, eds. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss, and Arthur W. Burks, Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA 1931–1958.
Riegl, Alois: Der moderne Denkmalkultus: Sein Wesen und seine Entstehung, Wien 1903.
Rossi, Aldo: The Architecture of the City, transl. by Diane Ghirardo and Joan Ockman, MIT Press: Cambridge, MA 1982 (orig. Italian ed. 1966).

Abstract

From medieval stećci and Yugoslav-era spomenici to war-scarred urban fragments and contemporary commemorative forms, this research explores the spatial framework of collective memory in the post-Yugoslav region—tracing its typological, geographical, and historical dimensions. By analyzing both intended and unintended sites of memory—those designed for commemoration and those marked by historical trauma or transformation—the dissertation outlines a regional typology of memoryscapes: spatial forms that inscribe memory through material presence, symbolic persistence, and continued reinterpretation.

The research foregrounds unintended monuments as meaningful mnemonic structures, reframing them through a semiotic lens grounded in Charles Sanders Peirce’s theory of signs. In particular, it identifies such spaces as indexical signs—architectural forms that point to histories they were not built to represent, yet continue to carry. Methodologically, the dissertation combines in-situ spatial analysis, historical and archival research, and diagrammatic drawing—especially axonometric analysis—to interpret and compare a myriad of memorial projects across the region, as well as three case studies in detail: the KRAK cultural center in Bihać, the war-scarred housing blocks of Alipašino Polje in Sarajevo, and the modular K67 kiosk.

By revealing the shared commemorative structures across new national borders and contested identities, the project positions post-Yugoslav memorial architecture as both a product of fragmentation and a continuity of cultural heritage. Ultimately, it argues for a more inclusive understanding of memory architecture as a key actor in processes of transitional justice and spatial reconciliation, offering models of collective remembering that extend beyond monumentality and resist ethno-national divisions.

Counterintuitive
Typologies

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About︎︎︎

Memoryscapes of Post-Yugoslavia: Toward a Typology of Monumental Semiosis

PhD Project by Ena Kukić

Counterintuitive Typologies

Events︎︎︎

Projects︎︎︎

About︎︎︎

Memoryscapes of Post-Yugoslavia: Toward a Typology of Monumental Semiosis

PhD Project by Ena Kukić

Counterintuitive
Typologies