ABSTRACT

Title:
From My Home to Our Home,
Towards the Contemporary Collaborative Events

Author(s):
Violeta Bakalchev
University American College, Skopje

Sasha Tasic,
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje

Mitko Hadzi Pulja

Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje

Minas Bakalchev
Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje

Hospitality, donation, and sharing are the essence of many residential cultures. Hospitality to another,
sharing one’s home, one’s meal, one’s words, one’s beliefs , and participating in collective events are a
part of the various housing practices that are a basis of our communities. Can we recognize these
traditional models in modern society? Can this aspect of housing and community be productive, or even
be a model for our housing practice today? We live in a contradictory world that is at the same time
subjectively centered and homogenized and whose consequences are fragmented communities and
spaces. However, we could still find authentic traces of our common living. This paper will introduce
different experiences from the joint events in the cities and villages of the Republic of Macedonia and
will link them to the specific places and spaces they shape and from which they evolve. They arise from
traditional events, but they are all transformed into contemporary situations: St. Ilija Day (Ilinden) and
construction of a church in the village of Govrlevo, a garden in the village of Velmei, and bonfire
gatherings before Christmas in the settlements in Skopje. They will show us: how a long-term
reconstruction / renovation of the church of St. Ilija,inspired and stirred the interest to be together on
the Day of St. Ilija and the various events organized by the inhabitants of the almost abandoned village
of Govrlevo; how building a private garden in the village of Velmej can be the physical framework for
various collective events of the inhabitants of the village; how the traditional gathering and collective
bonfires before Christmas in the neighborhoods of Skopje, encourage a new inclusive practice and
identity of the people which hail from the fragmented old neighborhood. All these practices are
contemporary phenomena and they continue from traditional models, but are reproduced and
sometimes opposed by the official views of the authorities, and they are the living events of today's
people. In a way they represent the traditional values, but also the contemporary opportunities for
unity.

Keywords: traditional patterns, collaborative event, residential culture

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Title:
From My Home to Our Home,
Towards the Contemporary Collaborative Events
INTRODUCTION
The home is the reflection of our elementary need to protect and isolate ourselves and feel safe from
the uncertain external effects, but it is certainly also a part of the complex basis of our social behavior,
our collective affiliation. In our home, we are separated, but at the same time we are integrated in our
concrete and imagined community. It is a physical artifact, but also action, part of our way of life and the
social-cultural model of a community (Rapoport, 1969). In it, we isolate ourselves, but we also open it to
and share it with our close ones.
But, what happens in a period of intensive changes when millions of people are in motion, when certain
areas become more crowded while others are abandoned and depopulated, when the fundamental,
social, cultural, political, military and technological bases of the World are displaced?

Fig 1. Christmas Eve, Dining-Table

Modern home undergoes changes. On one hand, it opens to the global trends, as a kind of a condition of
home overexposure (Virilio, 1986), while on the other hand, it distinguishes itself from the immediate
local environment and becomes indifferent to the context. On one hand, it loses the relations discussed
by Mark Auge in his issue about the crisis of the place (Auge, 1995), while on the other hand, it becomes
a place for production of subjectivity, a place for escape, exit and return, as stated by Maurizio Lazzareto
(Lazzareto, 2010). Still, this split of home seems to show the elementary relationship between the
individual and the collective, the private and the common, calling for reconsideration of the forgotten
characteristics of living together, through the collective eventsthatwe, in the modern world, experience
as changed, even to triviality, but have to understand or conceive once again prior to rejecting them

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.

Fig. 2. In the collage of Richard Hamilton entitled “Just what is it that makes today’s homes so different,
so appealing?”, we see a popular vision of the home as the realization of our elementary wishes
expressed through the logics of the consumer and popular culture. Richard Hamilton (1956). Just what is
it that makes today’s homes so different, so appealing? [Collage].

Fig. 3. Jacques Tati showed an anachronous condition of the home as a continuous, but folded space
composed of different sequences through which we pass and which basically constitute the home.
Monsieur Hulot’s Paris House in the film “Mon Oncle” (Jacques Tati, 1958). Mon Oncle [motion picture],
France.

Fig. 4. Domenico’s house was the exile for his family until he figured out that he should not only save his
family and himself, but should also address the entire world. Domenico House in Adrei Tarkovsky (1983).
Nostalghia [motion picture]. Soviet Union.

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1. CHRISTMAS EVE (BADNIK) AND THE IMAGINED MAHALLAS (OLD SETTLEMENTS) OF SKOPJE

Christmas Eve (Badnik) or carol-singing (Kolede) – is the day before the day of the birth of Jesus Christ
(Christmas), according to the Christian tradition. The etymological interpretation of the word “Badnik”
comes from the old Slavic word meaning – to be awake. That night, as Shapkarev wrote, “the people of
the household do not go to sleep, but stay awake, wherefore that night is referred to as “badnik” or
“budnik” (one who stays up)”. Many other researchers of these customs consider that the name of this
day comes from staying up and being awake by the ritual fire (Stojkovska, 2004).

Christmas Eve indicates the cycle of the winter holidays, the period from Christmas (7th January) to
Epiphany/the Twelfth Day (19th Januray), i.e., the period from the birth of Jesus Christ to his baptizing.
According to the popular beliefs, these days are of a great importance, particularly in rural environments
where customs with deep roots are practiced. These are known as layering of Christian and pre-
Christian, pagan customs, i.e., a period full of religious fear and different kinds of magical protection
(Kiteski, 2013).

According to the popular beliefs, in this period, there wander witches, vampires, plague, cholera, etc. In
the days after the birth of Christ and prior to his baptizing, we should keep away from the bad spirits
and the evil demons. They are among us and even within us. We should therefore send them away and
should not give in to temptations. On the day of St. Vasily (Vasilica, denoting orthodox new year ), this
task is given to different disguised groups of people. Their ritual dances are accompanied by theatrical
and comic elements full of magical actions, whose purpose is to drive out the evil and bring, at the same
time, good harvest and wellbeing in the year to come in the house, the family and on the agricultural
lands. The ancient tradition is mass practiced in some of the rural environments where fires are lit in the
centre of the villages, while the patrons of the celebration organize the activities around it. So, early in
the morning, the people under masks (dzolomari) go from house to house to expel the nymphs, the
witches, the demons and, in return, they get money, food, wine, brandy from the hosts.

Fig. 5. Dzolomari, ritual celebration of St. Vasiliy Day (Vasilica) in the village of Begnishte, Kavadarci.

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1.1 THE CASE OF NOVO MAALO NEIGHBOURHOOD

Since recently, in Skopje, we have been having the opportunity to see certain popular customs for the
Christmas Eve. In a very unusual way, in certain formerly existing pieces of the city, Christmas Eve fires
are lit and people are gathered around them.

In a dramatic way, Skopje has shown the contradictions of the urban morphology in the twentieth
century. The central city area is the critical level where we can decompose and distinguish the
contradicting positions of the city at historic and spatial level.

Fig 6. Skopje, city of fragments /collection of different pieces

Still, on Christmas Eve, in the remaining fragments of the central Skopje city area, one can notice the
fires as foci of the formerly existing mahallas (neighbourhoods). Novo Maalo neighbourhood has
extensively been devastated and abandoned by most of its population. However, it is exactly in its
former centre, the intersection of five streets that the Christmas Eve fire is lit. In this geometrical form
of a “star”, the central axis touches the modest fountain of the neighbourhood, leaving
“contemplative” spatial oases toward the neighbouring residential isles. It is exactly here that existing
and former inhabitants, men and women from Novo Maalo neighbourhood , the young and the old as
well as the children meet on the Christmas Eve. Each year, the patron, who will manage the celebration
in the next year, is elected. In this way, this modest, but vital celebration of the former community of
Novo Maalo is handed down from year to year.

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Fig. 7. Celebration on Christmas Eve, Novo Maalo neighbourhood, Skopje

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1.2 CRITICS

This tradition became the subject of criticism, first of all by the church authorities, who criticized the
pagan character of the celebrations and then by the town authorities who reported on the pollution of
the city atmosphere by the Christmas Eve fires. However, it is exactly its informal popular character,
between the traditional and the newly created, that gradually established this celebration as some kind
of anew urban phenomenon.

Fig. 8. According to the decision of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, this year, on the 5th January,
Christmas Eve fires are not to be lit and the already collected wood is to be donated to families on social
welfare (religija.mk);

The mayor of the city of Skopje – Mr. Shilegov calls upon the citizens not to light Christmas Eve fires to
prevent air pollution (sakamdakazam.mk).

1.3 INVESTIGATING THE COLLECTIVE FORM OF NOVO MAALO

The Novo Maalo neighbourhood was the subject of research of the Architectural Studio at the Ss. Cyril
and Methodius University in Skopje. It was originally a project of the architectural studio entitled
"Tactics of Transforming Residential Texture: a New Collective Form of Novo Maalo" that was followed
by individual master works aimed at exploring ways to transform an urban fragment, residential gap,
deriving from both everyday hypothetical situations and visions of the utopian energy of the seventies
through the concept of the collective form by Fumihiko Maki (Maki, 1964)

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Fig 9. “Star”: intersection of streets in Novo Maalo, from street patterns to mega form configuration

In the project, we started from inversion of the spatial neighborhood system, a kind of an anti-
neighborhood. What if the void of the streets becomes solid? What if the solid texture starts to become
void? A series of projects have given different alternations on this inverse reading of the neighborhood,
from distinctive houses to a linked form. Rise of the streets, layering of the streets, upgrading of the
streets, sequential connecting of selected land plots and their extruding, cutting of the city as a method
of interaction of the urban fragments.

Fig 10. Upgrading the Streets, Kristijan Mitrovski: From Urban Fragment to Urban Artifact /
Upgrading/Extending the Streets, Petrov Gordan: Upgrading the New Mahalla Settlement

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2. ILINDEN: FROM THE OLD VILLAGE HOUSES TO THE NEW CHURCH OF ST. ELIAS, GOVRLEVO

The day of St. Elias is known as Ilinden. St. Elias is described as a saint that ascends the sky in a fiery
chaise. There are numerous associations and analogies in the Christian and pre-Christian beliefs. In the
Slavic tradition, he is connected with the supreme god Perun, master of the thunders and the lighting
flashes. In many Slavic countries, St. Elias is known as Elias the Thunderer that ascends in a fiery chaise
and controls rain and snow, assuming the position of Perun in the popular beliefs. Hence, one can
understand why the positions of the sanctuaries dedicated to St. Elias are on mountain tops in
accordance with the pre-Christian tradition. Ilinden is a religious and nationwide holiday on which
people gather in churches and places dedicated to St. Elias.

Fig 11. St. Elias fiery ascent into heaven. Pskov School, 16th century.

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The old village of Govrlevo is almost totally abandoned, but the church of St. Elias situated on the top of
the hill, between the meadow and the forest, became the place for annual gathering of the population
on the day of St. Elias (Ilinden).

The inhabitants originating from the village wanted to extend and renovate the existing church located
between the meadow and the forest. The new church represents an extension of the old plan, which it
contains and encompasses within itself. In a certain period of time, both the old church and the new
structure existed in parallel, as a kind of a “live archaeology”, until the moment of their uniting. The
construction of the church was long and was led by a small team of enthusiasts and volunteers. The
process of construction became a place of presence, a place of social interaction between fellow
villagers and people originating from the village.

Fig 11. Builders of the church of St. Elias, Govrlevo

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The main material used for construction of the church were the stones from the old houses of the
Goverlevo village. In the history of architecture, the formal organizations and the types are not the only
ones that are the subject of continuity and re-conceiving, but it is also the material, the fragments of the
architectonic elements that travel through time. The reuse of material is a way of a concrete material
and symbolic continuity with their displacement and reshaping. The church of St. Elias (St. Ilija) is
composed of built-in stones taken from the old houses of the almost totally abandoned village (Fig. 3).
In that way, through de-contextualization and dislocation, a new continuity of material and place, of the
houses and the church is realized.

Fig 12. The stones of the old houses in Govrlevo in the walls of the renovated church of St. Elias.

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In the winter of 2009, the structure was constructed up to the dome and the stone walls were coated
with bricks on the inside. We could recognize the entrance porch, the wall, the window, the records
taken by the builders, the entire improvised support at the place of the structure, which was hardly
accessible, at 10 km from the local roads, along an earth road, whose conditions depended on the
weather conditions.

Fig 13. Phases of construction, winter 2009.

Summer 2010, Ilinden holiday (St. Elias day), the dome was completed. The meadow of St. Elias church
was the place of national gathering.

Fig 14. Phases of construction, summer 2010.

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Summer 2012, celebration of St. Elias day (Ilinden), people played national dances hand in hand on the
meadow (Fig. 3). The interior of the church was plastered as the basis for the fresco-paintings. We came
to this place for Ilinden holiday some five years ago, very spontaneously, following a little road sign. The
project started then and is still going on.

Fig 15. Ilinden, St. Elias, Govrlevo

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Fig 16. Ilinden, St. Elias, Govrlevo

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3. GARDEN: THE MISSING HOUSE, IN THE VILLAGE VELMEJ

The owner did not want a closed structure, a house. He originates from the village, but lives in Skopje.
His parents lived in the village, in a house close to this courtyard. He wanted to establish a physical
frame for his temporary presence there. At the boundary of the village, there is a small church
archetype dating back to the fourteenth century that was renovated by the same man. We inscribed a
circular notch with water in the courtyard. The village abounds in water and it is often that notches with
water run through the courtyards. Then, we placed a frame, a colonnade. We wanted a formal
substance to arise from the village courtyard as a timeless architectonic theme and in that way, make
the village courtyard a peristyle of the village as an inverse archaeology that does not add but disclose a
hypothetical state inscribed in the place (Fig. 1). The courtyard is along the boundary of the village. It is
reached through a village street, which is integrated with the courtyard and leads to the valley.

Fig 17. Position of the courtyard, Govrlevo

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We used concrete elements from the formerly existing powerful factory for concrete and prefabricated
elements “Karposh” from Skopje. These are vertical elements for electrical installations. We used the
technology of production of these columns according to the necessary dimensions from the project.
Local material, travertine stone from the village of Velmej was used for coating the walls and the floors.
The people for the stone works were from Pustec (Albania). As to their work, there is a certain
evolution. Despite our insisting on their following the old walling pattern, a certain local modernism in
laying of the stones and the aesthetics of the walls is visible. The construction lasted during the whole
summer of 2010. In autumn 2011, we visited the place with the students from our studio (Fig. 1). The
colonnade defines the space, but it also frames the surrounding landscape. It creates an artificial,
framing layer toward the totality of the surrounding. It is a private courtyard, but in a number of
occasions, it becomes a common courtyard for the village.

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Fig 18. Construction of the courtyard, summer 2010

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In autumn 2011, we visited the place with the students from our studio (Fig. 1). The colonnade defines
the space, but it also frames the surrounding landscape. It creates an artificial, framing layer toward the
totality of the surrounding. It is a private courtyard, but on a number of occasions, it becomes a
common courtyard for the village.

Fig 19. From the village celebration, Village Garden, Velmej

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CONCLUSION, 1+1=1
The modern world has brought the crisis of the social and spatial structure of the house, the way in
which we conceive, create and practice home. On one hand, there is loss of relationships, historicity
and authenticity, while on the other, there is production of artificial subjectivity. Still, beyond these main
trends, we can recognize a certain connection between the cultural practice and the practice of
everyday living.
The opening of the houses to the inclusive practice of Christmas Eve fires; the building-in of the material
from the houses into the joint sanctuary that invites to joint events; the creation of a garden, which
“lacks a house”, but nevertheless always and again occurs as a joint act of the people connected by the
joint events. All these practices come from below, recognize not only individual but also common
needs, use old forms, but create authentic values for their own time. Although the envelopes are
perhaps different, they reflect the humane need for a social affiliation, to be together and share what
we have.

1+1=1, Domenico house in Andrei Tarkovsky(1983).Nostalghia.

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REFERENCES:
Auge, Marc. (1995). Non-Places, Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity. London-New York:
Verso.

Fumihiko, Maki (1964). Investigations in Collective Form. St. Luis: Washington Univertsity, School of
Architecture . Accessed August 2017. http://library.wustl.edu/units/spec/archives/photos/maki/maki-
part1.pdf

Kiteski, Marko (2013). Makedonski praznici. Skopje: Kameleon. / Китевски, Марко (2013). Македонски
празници. Скопје: Камелеон.

Lazzarato, Maurizio (2010). Capitalism and Production of Subjectivity. In People meet in Architecture,
Biennale Architettura 2010, (pp. 23 – 27). Marsilio.

Rapoport, A. (1969). House Form and Culture. London : Prentice-Hall INTERNATIONAL, INC.

Stojkovska, Gordana (2004). Recnik na juznoslovenska mitologija. Skopje: Tri. / Стојковска, Гордана
(2004). Речник на јужнословенска митологија. Скопје:Три.

Virilio, Paul (1986). The Overexposed City. In Zone 1-2, New York: Urzone.

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