TRADITION AND INNOVATION IN SERBIAN 21^ST CENTURY ARCHITECTURE – TRADITIONAL MATERIALS, MODERN FORMS AND SUGGESTED DESIGNS

It would seem that the need to preserve traditional building heritage is slowly gaining importance in modern day Serbia. As well as the need to develop modern house types that resembles traditional ones. The old master builders, whilst building homes in local towns and villages not only left their mark on every building they created, but a mark of the times and conditions in which they lived and worked. Their ambitions were furthered by the wish of the inhabitants of the future house, who wanted their dwelling to have aesthetic value beside its functional value, which resulted in many shapes and forms of simple residencies. Traditional forms were always used as a base for developing modern dwellings, least in the sense of proportion and size of buildings. These parameters – the size of the building, rooms and objects – were determined over centuries, and were suited to the proportions of man, his age, height and movement through the building. As a result of these proportions came all the logic in the layout of the home as a whole, even the small details.