Ivanka Raspopović

Ivanka Raspopović (Serbian Cyrillic: Иванка Распоповић; 1930–2015) was a Serbian Modernist architect known for designing Belgrade's "Museum of Contemporary Art" and Kragujevac's "21 October Museum".

Career

In 1954, Raspopović was hired by the Rad construction company, where her husband Dragan Raspopović was also employed. One of her projects involved a textile factory in Loznica. She worked closely with the company's civil engineers to build the facility.

In 1955, she left Rad to work for the Srbijaprojekt construction firm, where she stayed until 1960. Raspopović built the second phase of the Belgrade Airport and was the lead designer of an entire complex of factories in Jagodina (then known as Svetozarevo). She also constructed a workers' dining facility in Obrenovac, a tuberculosis hospital in Prizren, a cold storage facility near Tetovo, and a department store in Bečej. Composed of 6 cubes creating a crystal like shape, the structure's facade was covered with white marble panels which straddled large windows. Five exhibition halls, of varying heights, allowed the lower levels to be viewed from higher up, at multiple vantage points. By linking its interior with the exterior space, the structure displayed an original architectural concept for that time.

In 1967, Raspopović and Antić were asked to build the "21 October Museum", located in the Šumarice Memorial Park in Kragujevac. Designed with 33 projecting rectangles of different heights, the facade was covered with specially made exposed bricks.

She later returned to work at Srbijaprojekt in 1965 and stayed there until her retirement in 1980. the "Museum of Contemporary Art" won Raspopović and Antić an "October Prize" in 1965, awarded to them by the City of Belgrade. In 1987, the building was declared a national monument and listed as a heritage site, as was the "21 October Museum". In 2015, she was mentioned in another compilation entitled "Women in Architecture: Contemporary architecture in Serbia since 1900". In 2018, Raspopović was also recognized in a volume about European women architects, which was published by the European Union. The book is called "MoMoWo – 100 papers in 100 years: European Women in Architecture and Design (1918–2018)". Also in 2018, Raspopović's experiences as a female architect were the subject of a conference organised by Belgrade International Architecture Week (BINA).

Background Born in Belgrade, Raspopović studied architecture at the University of Belgrade and graduated in 1954. She died on 8 June 2015.