GEOMETRY AND ORDER: ON THE NEED FOR A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE ANALYSIS OF THE PLANS OF THE HOUSES OF CULTURE IN MACEDONIA

Abstract

This theoretical article proposes a framework for the analysis of the plans of the Houses of Culture in Macedonia, with a particular focus on the relationship between geometric form, functional organisation and architectural order. Rather than treating the plan as a purely technical document or a passive reflection of the programme, this theoretical article reads it as a structure of thought, in which geometry operates as the organising mechanism of space, movement and hierarchy. The discussion draws on a theoretical synthesis of the principal authors of architectural analysis and plan morphology Francis D. K. Ching, Simon Unwin, Roger H. Clark and Michael Pause, Robin Evans, Christopher Alexander, Julienne Hanson and Nuran Saliu who all approach the plan as a geometric, spatial and meaningful structure, moving from form and order to the vocabulary of forms and the logical construct. The aim is not to present case studies, but to build a transferable analytical model that can be applied to the Houses of Culture in Macedonia. The argument is that the geometry of the plan is neither neutral nor merely compositional: it determines how the building is oriented, how functions are distributed, how movement is generated, how clarity or fragmentation is produced, and how the public character of the building is shaped. The analysis is therefore developed in layers geometric contour, axes and organising centre, functional zoning, spatial hierarchy and circulation, and the relationship between form and architectural meaning. Only through such a multi-layered reading can the plan be understood as the place where geometric form is translated into a functional and spatial system, and where the Houses of Culture articulate a specific public order within socialist modernism.