Nataša Danilović Hristić: Safety in Urban Spaces, in Serbian (Belgrade: Orion art, 2013). The book Safety in Urban Spaces is the result of the PhD thesis of Mrs. Danilović Hristić, providing a scientific definition of the criteria for safety in urban public spaces. Although the subject is fundamentally related to sociology, politicology, psychology and criminology, it becomes important in everyday functioning of the cities and, thus, important in processes of planning, design and urban design in general. This publication gives the definition of the term safety and also offers the strategy for providing safety in public urban spaces. The research was based on the analysis of safety in Belgrade, from social and economic aspect. As a result, recommendations and guides for providing safety through urban planning are defined. Besides the practical contribution to clarifying the problem of safety, we emphasize the significance of the scientific importance of establishing the relation between this issue and city urban system. The topic of safety in public urban spaces is much discussed on global level, through present and frequent fascination with measures for prevention in reduction of urban violence and terrorism effects, while the personal sense of safety is on top of list of demands when it comes to evaluation of the quality of urban life and competitiveness of cities and settlements.

Author of the rewiew: Darko Polić.

Architecture is a She (Casaviva, May 2014)

Women in architecture was well published on-line, with a large number of local and regional web portals  writing about our initiative and the subsequent  panel discussion. Here we are showing selected reviews of the initiative and thank everyone who have been following and continue to follow our activities on this topic.

Panel discussion on Women in Architecture (Designed.rs, 07.10.2013.)

 

Women in architecture (Pogledaj.to, 06.09.2013.)

 

Women in architecture (Voxfeminae.net, 28.08.2013.)

 

Women in architecture (Društvo arhitekata Zagreba, d-a-z.hr, 28.08.2013.)

 

Women in architecture (Vizkultura.hr, 27.08.2013.)

 

Women in architecture - initiative of Center for Architecture Belgrade (Designed.rs, 27.08.2013.)

The topic of Belgrade International Architecture Week 2014 is Public Spaces, dealing with the content, meaning, interactive nature and formal values which define urban spaces. Centre for Architecture Belgrade participated in BINA 2014 with three events.

The topic of this year's Belgrade International Architecture Week is Public Spaces, where through a series of different programs visitors and lecturers will investigate the content, meaning, the interactive nature and formal values which define urban spaces. Centre for Architecture Belgrade participates in this year's BINA with three events.

On Friday May 16, in Artget gallery of the Cultural Centre of Belgrade took place the lecture Why public space?, a presentation of the European Prize for Urban Public Space. This prize is a biennial competition that aims to encourage and recognize  the creation, recovery and improvement of public space in the understanding that the state of public space is a clear indicator of the civic and collective health of our cities. The program is organized by the Contemporary Culture Centre of Barcelona (CCCB).

At BINA the European Prize for Urban Public Space was presented by David Bravo Bordas from CCCB and Darko Polić from CAB. The event was moderated by Ivan Kucina.

Among the BINA workshops program,  Milena Zindović from CAB and Katarina Aleksić, informatics teacher, will hold the workshop Women as Belgrade Builders for children of age 10 to 12.  The workshop is scheduled for Thursday May 29 from 10:00to 11:30 am, and of Friday  May 30 from 10:30am to 12:00 pm, in the space of the Center for Promotion of Science in Knez Mihaila Street 5.

The workshop participants will work in groups to explore elements of urban public space using simple Web tools, as well as present their findings in the form of interactive images, interactive timelines and mind maps. Through their work and dialogue with moderators, the children will get acquainted with the history of Belgrade and its public spaces, significance of architecture and urban design in development of the city, as well as with works of our women architects. The workshop will be based on the principles of peer education since the children participating will be helped by their peers from "Branislav Nušić" Primary School, who have already successfully completed similar tasks during the educational project Women as Belgrade Builders.

All children's work will be published on the project's blog.

In collaboration and by invitation from Do.Co.Mo.Mo Serbia, Milena Zindović together with Marijom Martinović will guide the BINA walk Banks of Sava River and What Connects Them. On Sunday June 1, starting at 2 pm from Beton Hala, the group will board a boat to travel on the Sava river and talk about its banks, important urban ambiances such as Savamala, the Sava amphitheater and Old Fairground, and buildings such as the "May 25" sports center, the Belgrade Fair, BIGZ etc.

The Centre for Architecture Belgrade is proud to have a series of studies on housing research in our archive, prepared by the former Centre for Housing of the IMS Institute.
Today's researchers may find at first that these studies, prepared and published around 30 years ago, seem a bit obsolete or too formal and mathematically precise. One should, however, have in mind that the final result of several years of work on these studies was the publication Conditions and technical normatives for design of residential buildings and apartments (so-called red book), a set of rules and regulations that defined the minimum a space must comply to, later implemented in the realization of residential buildings and estates by all means significantly better than the contemporary production.
Today, as the construction of social housing is once again in focus, with savings in all steps of the process of design and construction, we turn to these researches, and the standards imposed by their authors may help the designers now.

Attached is the list of available studies, apartment plan catalogues and proceedings, mainly prepared by the Centre for housing (in Serbian):

Bešlić, Vukica, Čanak, Mihailo: Standardizacija dimenzija sanitarne i kuhinjske opreme u stanu, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1974.
Čanak, Mihailo, Luković, Zorana: Uporedna analiza funkcionalnih mogućnosti skeletnih sistema i sistema sa poprečnim nosećim zidovima, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1978.
Čanak, Mihailo, Utvrđivanje upotrebne vrednosti konstruktivnih sistema, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1983.
Čanak, Mihailo: Ekonomske posledice projektantskih odluka, I deo, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1983.
Čanak, Mihailo: Funkcionalna koncepcija stanova u IMS sistemu, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1974.
Čanak, Mihailo: Funkcionalni aspekti konstrukcije stambenih zgrada, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1979.
Čanak, Mihailo: Funkcionalni aspekti opreme stana, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1973.
Čanak, Mihailo: Funkcionalni aspekti organizacije stana, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1973.
Čanak, Mihailo: Funkcionalni aspekti stambenih zgrada i stanova: Model vrednovanja projektantskih mogućnosti konstruktivnih sistema CS'84.K, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1984.
Čanak, Mihailo: Industrijsko oblikovanje i proizvodnja komponenata skeletnog sistema: Funkcionalna koncepcija stanova u IMS sistemu, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1975.
Čanak, Mihailo: Uticaj organizacije stana na upotrebnu vrednost stambenog prostora, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1974.
Čanak, Mihailo: Vrednovanje kvaliteta u stambenoj izgradnji i stanovanju, doktorska disertacija, Arhitektonski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, 1983.
Fototeka stanova, Beogradska naselja Kijevo - Kneževac, Sveska I, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1983.
Fototeka stanova, Centralna zona Novog Beograda I, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1978.
Fototeka stanova, Centralna zona Novog Beograda II, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1979.
Fototeka stanova, Fleksibilni stan II, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1981.
Fototeka stanova, Novi Beograd, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1980.
Gavrilović, Branka, Janković, Ivan, Petrovar, Ksenija, Čanak, Mihailo: Model vrednovanja stanova i stambenih zgrada CS'80, II deo: Kvalitet stambene zgrade, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1980.
Gavrilović, Branka: Funkcionalni aspekti veličine stana, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1973.
Izgradnja, posebno izdanje, Stan i stanovanje
Izgradnja, vanredni broj, Inpros, 1973.
Janković, Božidar: Priručnik za projektovanje višespratnih kolektivnih stambenih zgrada u montažnom sistemu IMS sa pregledom tipologije rešenja, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1992.
Janković, Ivan: Metodologija izrade prostornih standarda stana i zgrade, I deo, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1981.
Karadžić, Branislav: Objekti društvenog standarda u montažnom skeletnom sistemu IIM, Institut za ispitivanje materijala SRS, 1966.
Kara-Pešić, Živojin, Janković, Ivan, Gavrilović, Branka: Koncept novog naselja, tom 2, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1979.
Kara-Pešić, Živojin: Fleksibilnost i stanovanje, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1977.
Kovačević, Slobodan: Bibliografsko istraživanje literature o modelima sa osvrtom na modele aplikativne u industrijalizovanom načinu gradnje, seminarski rad, postdiplomske studije iz urbanizma, Arhitektonski fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu, 1973.
Kovačević, Slobodan: Korišćenje stambenih struktura u objektima koje su realizovali članovi poslovnog udruženja Inpros iz Beograda, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1973.
Ksenija Petovar: Model programiranja stambenih struktura, I i II deo, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1980/1981.
Naučno-stručni skup: Kvalitet stanovanja i ljudske potrebe, Centar za stanovanje IMS, Zavod za zgradarstvo IGH, Gradbeni centar Slovenije, 1979.
Naučno-stručni skup: Položaj učesnika u stambenoj izgradnji, Centar za stanovanje IMS, Zavod za zgradarstvo IGH, Gradbeni centar Slovenije, 1983.
Priručnik za primenu građevinskih sistema, materijala i elemenata u stambenom fondu JNA, Sveska 1, Institut za ispitivanje materijala SRS, 1988.
Priručnik za primenu građevinskih sistema, materijala i elemenata u stambenom fondu JNA, Sveska 2, Institut za ispitivanje materijala SRS, 1988.
Privremeni standard stana usmerene stambene izgradnje, Gradbeni centar Slovenije, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1974.
Savetovanje: Utvrđivanje upotrebne vrednosti stanova, Gradbeni centar Slovenije, 1971.
Standardi za projektovanje stanova i stambenih zgrada, Centar za stanovanje IMS, 1980.

Workshop Women as Belgrade Builders  which Centre for Architecture Belgrade realized in cooperation with Belgrade Elementary School  “Branislav Nušić” is successfully finished, and this occasion was marked by a visit with the pupils to the subject city sites.

During this tour, guided by Milena Zindović and Katarina Aleksić, the pupils visited buildings by architects Jelisaveta Načić, Milica Šterić and Milica Krstić in dowtown Belgrade. The visit started in front of the Elementary School “Kralj Petar Prvi” building by Jelisaveta Načić, where we spoke on elements of this building's style, as well as architectural elements in general.   In front of Jelisaveta's Small steps in Kalemegdan the pupils presented the life and work of the first Serbian woman architect.  We also talked about architecture as a profession and a framework for everyday life.

The walk continued towards Zeleni Venac and the buildings of architect Milica Šterić, with a stop in front of the restaurant “?” and the House of princess Ljubica, two examples of traditional Balkan architecture. The conversation continued on the topic of city planing and importance of urbanism as a discipline.

In Carica Milica Street we stopped opposite the EPS office building by architect Milica Šterić and talked about the aesthetic of Modernism, proportions and life and work of Milica Šterić, longtime director of  Energoprojekt Architecture and Urbanism.

The tour ended with the visit to Electrical Technical School "Nikola Tesla", former Secong High School for Girls by architect Milice Krstić. Thanks to the hospitality of this school's professors and secretary we visited the interior of this complex building - the library, ceremonial hall, terrace and laboratories. During the visit to the school the pupils presented their findings and work on the topics of elements of Serbian-Byzantine style, life and work of Milica Krstić, as well as the status of women in Serbia in the 19th and the beginning of 20th century.

All of the pupils' works and a detailed report of the sites visit can be found at the blog Women as Belgrade Builders, and will also be exhibited in two locations during the coming Belgrade International Architecture Week  from 8th to 31st May 2014.

Centre for Architecture Belgrade would like to thank the enthusiasm and creativity of teacher Katarina Aleksić, the cooperation of Elementary School  “Branislav Nušić” and the support of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade for the successful realization of this workshop. Photos: Katarina Aleksić

Milena Vukmirović, PhD, Executive Coordinator of the Places and Technologies 2014 conference, reveals for CAB blog some first-hand information on authors and topics that await us at this event.

What is the number of submitted papers and what kind of interest have domestic and foreign experts shown for this event?

A total of 126 papers have been submited, signed by 248 authors and co-authors; the figures show the seriousness of the event. Of this number, 53 papers were sent by colleagues from abroad, so the interest for the conference is evenly distributed among domestic and foreign experts.

As for the participants from Serbia, we may say that the papers come from the majority of registered universities in our country: Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš, Novi Pazar etc. On the other hand, the largest number of papers from abroad were submitted by researchers from the region  (Croatia, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia, Albania, Republic of Srpska (BIH), Romania, Bulgaria), although a significant number of papers also came from  Italy, Austria, Turkey and Great Britain.

Are you satisfied with the diversity of papers, considering the multidisciplinary approach of the conference? What topics did the authors recognize as the most interesting? What topics and authors do you announce as an outstanding contribution to the conference?

The multidisciplinary concept of the conference is confirmed through papers belonging to different research domains. The majority belongs to the domain of urban planning, architectural technologies and architecture in general, but we also have papers dealing with traffic, civil engineering and geodesy, electrotechnics, mechanical engineering and a certain number of researches belonging to social and humanist sciences.

Having in mind the topics of the conference, the majority of the papers responded to the topic of urban design and technologies, innovative materials, systems and technologies and the topic of green building and green strategies and technologies.

What are the expected direct results of the conference and how are they going to be prepared and presented to the participants and the public? How do you plan to continue the activities started with this conference?

All submitted and accepted papers will be published in the digital proceedings, accessible on-line, and open for broader public. Besides this, Cambridge Scholar Publishing plans to publish a scientific monography. A thematic issue of the Energy and Building scientific journal will also be prepared. Both of these publications are envisaged as a sort of a follow-up of the conference.

Also, our plan is to organize this conference once in every two years, so the sequel of these activities can be expected in 2016.

The first international academic conference Places and Technologies 2014 will be held at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade on April 3rd and 4th 2014. The Centre for Architecture Belgrade is the official new media partner.

Awaiting the start of the Places and Technologies 2014 conference, prof. Eva Vaništa Lazarević, PhD, Technical Director of the conference, talks exclusively for CAB blog about her experiences on preparations for this event. What is the goal of this conference? The goal is, first of all, meeting and networking of young scientists, who nowdays have a hard time finding resources for travel and broadening of knowledge, meaning that they work less and less with their colleagues from the academic world.  Younger scientists and schollars will have an opportunity to meet well-kown experts at the conference and learn what is new, but also to check where they are with their research; to realistically understand their achievements compared with others. That is something that no country in the World can do without: the strenghtening of its' scientific potential through comparation and competitiveness. What is special about the Places and Technologies, compared to other conferences? Is it mainly an academic or expert - architecture and urbanism event? Among numerous conferences that take place worldwide, we wanted to organize a slightly enhanced fusion of three areas: science, education and technological knowledge derived from the practice. Ambitiously conceived, the conference was not easy to organize: to gather the highest representatives of academia from the region and wider - the deans of architecture faculties, who meet in Belgrade after more than two decades, and foreign experts from the practice and top professors - experts from reputable faculties from across Europe. Why is it important to connect places and technologies? The place as term is still rarely spoken of in the domestic practice, dominant terms are areas or spaces. Places in English depicts a much wider context than our firs associative translation: space (prostor), although it probably describes it better: place (but also non-place) of cities, with the technology strongly implemented in it. Nothing is as it was a few years ago - especially in the sphere of high technologies, with rapid progress. Museums no longer contain artefacts, they are virtual, people no longer communicate directly, but through social networks, public spaces are equipped with chargers for mobile devices and interactive maps. Tourists no loger buy maps, but follow the information on their smartphones, who are rendered obsolete every year and constantly need to be replaced with newest models. Even older generations use more and more technological terms, and the communication of two people, even on a date or a business meeting at a restaurant, is impossible without constant checking of the mobile phone. This gesture, previously considered as the sign of bad manners, has spread over the Planet: even the German chancellor did not resist looking at her smart phone while standing in the first row of CeBIT conference. This phenomenon is also related to the society of extreme individualsim, that we live in today. How did you select the key speakers and guests of the conference? In what direction are you trying to stear the conference? International conferences are based on previous long-term acquaintances and collegiality. The board of this conference is formed - due to certain circumstances - of a completely female team, and the members are distingushed professors  (prof. Milica Bajić Brković, PHD, who provided the support of ISOCARP, prof. Aleksandra Krstić, PhD and prof.  Aleksandra Đukić, PhD). It was their privilege to invite the reputable colleagues from Europe: the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Great Britain and Italy. The scientific board members are, besides our dean and our professors, Worldwide experts: from Greece, Portugal, Spain, Cypruss, Great Britain, Poland, Turkey, Czech Republic and Lithuania, as well as members of the academic communities from the region, including professors of philosohy and other technical faculties. To make sure that the conference is not solely academic and perhaps a bit boring, we invited the guests from the practice: the French team Nodesign.net, who come from Paris and will show their achievements in creating virtual museums. Even the very active archeologist Rade Milić, the author of the first interactive board in Belgrade and the researcher of Belgrade underground spaces, will participate. The messages of the conference will be focused on the following: what we have acheived, what we can do and the possible ways of acheiving it today. In what way do you believe that the local academic and professional architectural communities can benefit from this conference? What benefits do you foresee for the development of Belgrade and other cities in the region? Has the conference met the support in the public, especially in terms of sponsorships and donations? What kind of support did the institutions (ministries, local authorities and government agencies) promise to provide? Telekom Serbia understood the importance of this event and offered to be the general sponsor - confirming the importance of new technologies as one of rare companies that does not have to worry about survival in the hard year we live in. The majojrity of embassies we contacted recognized the topic of the green aspect in implementation of high-tech improvements in space and clearly institutionally supported the conference. Unfortunately, due to the economic crisis, only the French Embassy wanted to help with the travel and accomodation arrangements of French guests. Savski venac was the only municipality who accepted to participate financially. Vračar resigned at the last moment for political reasons, and many municipalities did not even bother to respond to our letters. The Urban Planning Institute of Belgrade, as the largest urban planning enterprise in the country, institutionally supported the conference, with the technical manager of the Institute as a member of our scientific board. On the other hand, places where the results of the conference could be implemented - local governements, did not respond, not even from Vojvodina. Private companies, like Arhipro, provided the always-welcomed finantial support and showed understanding, always based on the enthousiasm of one man, in this case a woman, my dear colleague  architect Anja Milić. I speak of this as the gathering of finantial resources for the conference proved to be hard and somewhat degrading work, as it took seven months. The organization team, first of all Milena Vukmirović, PhD and myself, wrote, pleaded and met around five hundred institutions, companies and embassies. The Chamber of Engineers of Serbia showed a lot of understanding as our lead financier. The ministry of science also provided important funding. We expect support from companies like Philips and Lafarge, as well as the Emabassy of Netherlands, as the most prominent donors in Serbia. The benefits of the conference will probably not be visible instantly, but will surely provide long-term strategic impact. Our intention is to prepare a book and a manual with guidance based on conference results and easily applicable in local communities, related to the application of technologies in cities, with chapters by selected authors from the conference. Besides the proceedings with all hunderd and fifty papers, two more important publications will be prepared afterwards: Cambridge offered to print free of charge selected conference papers. Also, the elite journal Energy & Building will publish a special issue with the most important papers from our conference. The whole conference will be recorded and a video will be prepared for YouTube, and Twitter and other social networks will be used to transmit the information from the conference. The first international academic conference Places and Technologies 2014 will be held at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade on April 3rd and 4th 2014. The Centre for Architecture Belgrade is the official new media partner.

With the technical assistance of the Centre for Architecture Belgrade, Municipality of Požega submitted the application of the recently reconstructed main city square for the  European Prize for Urban Public Space. Freedom square in Požega is one of the best public spaces realized in Serbia in the last few years. Good practice in design, and especially the realization, carried out in cooperation with the authors Dragana Stevanović and Oliver Stanković, is an example that should be promoted. Before... ... and after the reconstruction. European prize for the best urban public space, organized by the Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) is a prestigious competition, carried our biennially. The results of the competition will be announced in the first half of 2014. Darko Polić, one of the founders of the Centre for architecture,  has recently been appointed as a member of the Expert Committee of the European Prize for Urban Public Space.

The first international academic conference Places and Technologies 2014 was held at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade on April 3rd and 4th 2014. The Centre for Architecture Belgrade was the official new media partner. Also, we presented two papers entitled "The Impact of Smart Home Technologies on Architectural Design" and "Google Earth as a Microworld".