District Social Insurance Office / University Clinic for Surgical Diseases St. Naum Ohridski

The breakthrough of modern architecture in Macedonia was marked even before the construction of the Metropol Chamber of Commerce by Milan Zloković. The architect from Zagreb, Drago Ibler (1894–1964) had already completed the building of the District Social Insurance Office in the center of Skopje. Its composition consists of a branched foundation with two inner courtyards (atriums), accentuated horizontals with solid and void sections, and a clean, flat façade in a reddish hue. The avant-garde nature of this building is further confirmed by the fact that it was created almost simultaneously with the well-known structures of European purism. Ibler skillfully integrated the experiences of European cubism, Russian constructivism, and the complete redefinition of craftsmanship, executed in the spirit of the Bauhaus ideology. The purity of its expression, composed of complex components that would later become fundamental paradigms in the creation of the principles of the international style, reflects a deep understanding of Loos' ideas of ornament-free design, set upon a richly structured experiential approach that establishes the foundational reference framework of the modern stylistic expression.