Self-managing socialism and its space: Blok 5 and challenging rhetoric of flexibility

The objective of this research is to highlight the importance of the cause-and-effect relationship between a society and the space it produces. Through the analysis of Blok 5 (1977), a collective residential complex in Podgorica, Montenegro, and its transformation throughout the 40-year timespan, this paper sets the ambition of disclosing one part of transition-related socio-spatial problems that Montenegrin cities are facing nowadays. The structure of this paper entails two constitutive and complementary components, i.e. a scientific-theoretical and a practical level. The theoretical part of the research is based on a systematic review of the literature dealing with the relationship between society, city and architectural space, as well as the concept of open work. Given that the research examines the socio-spatial transformations of Montenegrin cities in the context of social, economic and political change, this has been illustrated by an extract from practice – the case study of Blok 5. Since the paper relates the quality of society directly to the quality of spatial transformations over time, this research, ultimately, comes to conclusion that, in order for a society to have an affirmative stance towards its own space, that very society needs to develop an adequate system of qualitative and cultural values and needs, as well as adequate level of awareness and culture in general. Original contribution of this paper consists in pointing at the interlinkages between the European philosophical-sociological thinking and art scene of the 1960s and 1970s, and processes of design and realisation of a specific residential complex in Montenegro that was in the making in those very years, during the Yugoslav self-managing socialism.