The Centre for Architecture Belgrade realized the Women in Architecture project during 2013. This book, as its result, showcases the work and experiences of women architects in Serbia since the beginning of the 20th century until today.

The 160 pages showcase illustrated texts and interviews on the most important female authors and their projects. The whole publication is bilingual, in Serbian and English language.

Asking questions on the position and role of women in architectural practice (now and in the past), we hope to enrich our profession in Serbia, and present to the global community the local architecture through the lens of its female authors.

The Centre for Architecture Belgrade owes special gratitude to our colleague Milena Zindović, for her great effort and enthousiasm in realization of our ideas.

We hereby thank the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, who financially supported the publication of this book.

To get your copy of this book, please contact the Centre for Architecture directly at books@cab.rs.

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.

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”.

After a successful initiative that lasted through the months of September and October last year, Centre for Architecture Belgrade continues the work on the promotion and affirmation of Women in architecture, as well as architectural values in general.

In cooperation with Belgrade Elementary School Branislav Nušić, at the invitation of Informatics teacher Katarina Aleksić, the project Women as Belgrade Builders was initiated. Conceived as a research and part of the children’s Informatics course, this project aims to present the cultural heritage and Belgrade architecture to the pupils and introduce them to the historic development of women’s rights in Serbian society, and all this through the use of information techologies and achievement of computer literacy.

During the Women as Belgrade Builders project, sixth grade pupils of Elementary School Branislav Nušić will work in groups to research topics such as the life and work of some of the women of Serbian architectural history, their built work in Belgrade downtown, architecture as a profession, as well as the position of women in Serbian society from 19^th century until today. Through photographs, videos, drawings and Web 2.0 tools such as infographics, timelines and interactive maps, pupils will present their research and work. Centre for Architecture Belgrade will also organize a walk through city center where the pupils will visit the subject buildings and gather their research material.

Through support and participation in this project, the Centre for Architecture Belgrade develops also an educational aspect of its activities, which are mainly focused on promotion of architecture and architectural values. We believe the development from early age of consciousness for architectural and aesthetic values of Belgrade buildings and the need for their preservation and protection will contribute to a better future of our city.

You can follow the project’s course on its own blog edited by Katarina Aleksić and Milena Zindović: http://graditeljkebeograda.blogspot.com/

Center for Architecture will, as well, report regularly on the development of this projects and its results on our blog.

CAB presented a paper on the information platform of the Centre for Architecture at the International Conference On Architecture. The conference was held at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Artsin Belgrade from 9th to 11th of December 2013.

The paper by Goran Petrović, entitled Integrated Information System of the Centre for Architecture Belgrade, can be found on the conference proceedings CD.

The paper gives a review of the results of several years of work on enhancing the communication between architects and on architecture in general. In contemporary world of digital real-time communication, our approach was to start and promote stories on architecture and urban space through maximum use of new media.

The first step towards the realization of this idea was to start an internet-blog on urban design in 2008. At the time, the idea that anyone can write something and publish it to the whole world was in, so we joined this digital wave of thousands of bloggers.

A few years later, the focus of internet communication switched to social networks as more democratic media. Many bloggers gave up, but we used Facebook and Twitter and turned our story into a wide conversation of all those interested in architecture and the city. For serious communication, we also employed the strict business network LinkedIn.

Today, along with the activities in all those social networks and a periodical newsletter, we maintain a Web site that integrates our whole system. Blog posts on different architecture-related topics and information on our work can be found at the address www.cab.rs.

Our next step will be to enable architects and all other professionally or emotionally involved with the city to access and use various resources of the Centre for Architecture through this site.

Centre for Architecture Belgrade completed a series of articles with the topic Women in Architecture, which were published on our blog during September and October. Through 15 features published in this series we tried to start a conversation about the female authors in Serbian architecture and draw attention to the successful architects who worked and work in our country.

The article series received positive reactions from both the professional as well as the general public, and moved from virtual to real space thanks to the cooperation with Blok Conference, during which a discussion on Women in Architecture was held. The participants were some of the architects featured in the Centre for Architecture’s initiative, as well as special guests. Žaklina Gligorijević, Eva Vaništa Lazarević, Grozdana Šišović, Dubravka Đukanović, Bojana Ibrajter Gazibara, Zorica Savičić and Špela Leskovic spoke at the discussion, while the conversation was moderated by Milena Zindović.

The discussion was organized by Centre for Architecture with the aim of establishing a relation between the global context where the female contribution to the architectural profession has been undergoing a revaluation for some time now, and the local context in which the same principles and questions can be identified. Considering this initiative by Centre for Architecture Belgrade is a pioneer attempt to explore the topic of female authorship in local architecture, the outcome was very uncertain.

Since the project arose great interest with the participants as well as the general public, Centre for Architecture wanted to deepen and additionally clarify some of the opinions related in the interviews and the various stands the participants took, in a form of an open debate. In positive atmosphere the guests talked about their experiences from the practice, answered questions and related conflicting opinions. Some of the topics of discussion were Jelisaveta Načić, Milica Šterić, having or lacking an ego, working in couples, working in smaller or larger teams, with male or female colleagues. At the end the audience interacted as well.

All participants emphasized the importance of good and quality architecture above all, as well as the pitfalls of generalization of certain principles as masculine or feminine. The question on whether we need a female gender for the professional title served as a conclusion that the words architecture and architect already are female – which certainly makes a good base for the continuation of the research.

We would like to thank all those who participated, contributed and followed our initiative. The importance of this topic certainly exceeds the limits of this first project and the Centre for Architecture Belgrade will continue to engage with, research and support women in architecture.

Photos: Vanja Petrović

The Centre for Architecture Belgrade, in cooperation with BLOK Conference, invites you to attend and participate in the discussion on women in architecture, which will be held on the first day of the fifth BLOK Conference, on October 10th 2013, around 4 PM, as part of the main programme of the Conference.

At the height of the initiative on our website , and in cooperation with BLOK Conference, Centre for Architecture Belgrade organizes the discussion on women in Architecture. We would like to continue and expand the conversation started with a series of articles and interviews in which we presented some of the ladies from our architectural history and contemporary practice, as well as raise additional interest in the professional and wider public for the issues of architectural profession. The participants of the discussion will share with the audience their professional experiences, thoughts on architecture and advices for young colleagues. We invite you to join the conversation!

The discussion participants will be some of the ladies that took part in the initiative of Centre for Architecture and special guests. These are, among others: Eva Vaništa Lazarević, architect and professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade University; Žaklina Gligorijević from the Urban Planning Institute in Belgrade, architect-planner and member of numerous professional forums;  Zorica Savičić, architect and professor at the Faculty for art and design, Megatrend University; Grozdana Šišović, architect and co-founder of Belgrade architecture studio Re:Act ; Bojana Ibrajter Gazibara, art historian at the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade; Dubravka Djukanović, architect, conservator and lecturer at Faculty of technical sciences in Novi Sad and Špela Leskovic, architect and co-founder of studio AKSL arhitekti from Ljubljana. Moderators of the discussion will be Milena Zindović, architect, programme director at the Centre for Architecture Belgrade and Marija Maša Pavlović, architect, PhD candidate at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade.

BLOK is held every year at the ZIRA Congress Centre. The main part of the conference consists of lectures ex cathedra, and accompanying exhibitions, forums, workshops, competitions and a movie marathon dedicated to the genre of architectural films. Detailed programme of the conference and a list of guest lecturers are available at the Conference Web site.

Admission to the discussion Women in architecture is free for registered visitors.

The global architectural community has been discussing the topic of Women in Architecture for quite some time. From research on the status of women in the architectural practice, discussions on Architect Barbie, through features focusing on forgotten women of the architectural past, up to the activities of specialized professional associations, this topic has become a serious movement which aims to draws focus and create change in the way the architectural professions works, and to turn the hermetic architectural community into a contemporary and lively profession which is enriched and improved by the diversity of its members.

Centre for Architecture Belgrade would like to contribute to the discussion on women and their influence on architecture through a view at the local architectural history and contemporary practice. Women architects in Serbia have been active since the beginning of the 20^th century, and some of them have, albeit sometimes from the shadow, left an important and visible trace on our built environment. Starting with Jelisaveta Načić, through architects of the Modernist movement, to successful architects and urban desingers working today, women have succeeded in playing a key role in almost all phases of development of Serbian architecture.

Regardless of today’s equality in architecture as well as other professions, the fact remains that women have entered and were recognized in the architectural profession much later than men, and we still don’t appreciate enough the work and opus of the women in our architectural history. We believe this topic to be significant and exciting to all who love and work in architecture, and above all to women in architecture who are today actively designing our built environment. Additionaly, a review of the feminine side of Serbian architecture could allow young members of our profession to find role models and examples with whose sensibility they can more easily identify.

This is why in September we are starting the initiative Women in architecture. During 5 weeks Centre for Architecture Belgrade will present some of the influential women of our architectural history and contemporary practice through a series of articles and interviews on our website, as well as features on social networks. In an attempt to find answers to questions such as whether there is a female principle in architecture and what makes the female contribution to architecture special, we hope to draw attention to the rich opus and important contribution, independent as well as in teamwork, of women architects to our cities and built environment.

Milena Zindović of Centre for Architecture Belgrade was invited by lecturers from Tunghai University in Taiwan to participate as a guest critic at the final presentation of the Tunghai architecture summer studio in Rome, which took place end of July in the Cornell AAP studio space in Rome.

The workshop entitled ‘Building the Common Space’ was led by Luca Garofalo of the Roman architecture studio IaN+, and assisted by Tien Ling, lecturer at the architecture department of Tunghai University. 18 students of the Tunghai University from Taiwan attended the workshop, and in groups of two worked on conceptual proposals for a religious space located in either the Roman Forum or the courtyard that houses the visitor’s center, opposite the Forum entrance.

The aim of this short but fruitful workshop was to explore the relationship of architecture and urban heritage through design and function of a religious building, which can as well be seen as public/common space. In the complex and historical Rome, it is a challenge to create a common space which would allow the public, the citizens and the common interests to reclaim the public historical spaces which are today mostly populated by tourist.

The workshop’s final presentation showcased 9 projects, which answered the topis in interesting ways and enriched the discussion on religion, architecture, culture and public space with an Eastern perspective and understanding. Other guest critics were Carmelo Baglivo, co-founder of IaN+, and Juan Carlos Artolozaga, graduate student at Cornell University.

Each year Tunghai University from Taiwan organizes a summer studio in Rome for its students. The students are introduced to roman and Italian history, culture and architecture and, in co-operation with lecturers from Cornell University, participate in an architectural workshop that allows them to creatively express the ideas and inspiration taken from their time in Italy in the form of actual proposals for the city’s urban space.

Student work:

Praying in the wall by Ting-Wei Lee and Ta-Wei Chen

Living pillars by Yu-Ching Huang and Wei-Ting Liu

Praying room beneath the water by Yun-Chu Liang and Po-Chen Wu

Il Segreto Giardino by Tyson Chen and William Chen

Photos: Tien Ling