Almaški kraj is a specific part of the centre of Novi Sad, characteristic not onlz for its rich heritage, but also for the demonstrated resolution of its residents to preserve their neighbourhood. The Centre for Architecture Belgrade has been supporting the activities of NGO Almašani almost from their beginning.

During the last 10 years, Almašani have established themselves as one of the few important citizen initiatives, dedicated to protection of tangible and intangible heritage of the Almaški kraj. CAB is a long-standing partner in their activities, providing innovative urban design solutions, professional studies and researches for the area.

NGO Almašani has announced an ambitious programme of activities for 2015, with the Centre for Architecture as an active partner.

Summer school of architecture takes place in Kotor again this year, traditionally in a prison where, probably, we all belong.

Architecture Prison Summer School 2014 deals with the research of possibilities for transformation of spaces around Hotel Fjord as the trigger for urban reconstruction of a part of Kotor. Mentors will work on this task with students from different European architecture schools.

The team of offices behind the concept of GH Fjord Study and Program for APSS 2013 and APSS 2014 has been appointed for a curatorial team for Montenegin national pavilion in Venice Biennale. Exhibition Treasures in Disguise – Montenegro pavilion is curated by Dijana Vučinić (DVARP), Boštjan Vuga (SADAR+VUGA), Simon Hartmann (HHF), Ilka and Andreas Ruby (Ruby Press) and Nebojša Adžić (SACG).

The Montenegro Pavilion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale presents four examples of late-modernist architecture that were built in Montenegro between 1960 and 1986. When these buildings were first constructed, they radiated their builders’ enthusiasm and confidence about the new society they were building. Only a few decades later, these buildings embody the complete opposite: poorly used and maintained, they are a testament to the failure of modernism. Nobody seems to be able to recognize any value in them; hence, their fate seems sealed: decay and demolition. One of these buildings is Hotel Fjord. APSS will discuss these issues and start a debate among people from Montenegro and professionals from all over the world.

Joining of these initiatives – the design study for Hotel Fjord, the Summer School, the Montenegro Pavilion, all aims to initiate a powerful development impulse for the whole city of Kotor.

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

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.

In the first feature of the current project by CAB: Women in Architecture, art historian Bojana Ibrajter Gazibara introduces us to the life and work of Jelisaveta Načić, the first woman architect in Serbia.

The brave lady Jelisaveta Načić, chose for herself in many ways an unusual and extraordinary life path. Born into a rich and respectable tradesman’s family in Belgrade in 1878, she was successfully educated and after finished grammar school decided to continue her education at the University. This was a rarity in a country where at the turn of the century only seven percent of women had elementary literacy. It was that same year, 1896, when Jelisaveta was starting her studies, that a separate Architecture Department was established at the newly open Technical Faculty of the Belgrade University. Until then students wishing to study architecture departed abroad, to bigger Middle-European university centers, and came back to their home land afterwards to work in the Ministry of Construction. So Jelisaveta Načić becomes the first woman in Serbia to enroll into this typicaly male Faculty, and in year 1900 she was part of the first generation of graduated students of architecture and the first woman architect in Serbia.

Two years after graduation Jelisaveta Načić acquires valuable practice working as a technical intern in the Ministry of Construction, but after passing the license exam in 1902 fails to find employment as an architect at the Ministry since by law the title of senior civil servant could not be attributed to a female person, but only to man who served in the Military service. The decisive Jelisaveta Načić was not stopped by this. She spent her working years in civil service, working in the Engineering – Architectural department of the Belgrade Municipality, opening thus, together with doctor Draga Jočić, the path to employment of women in the public sector.

At the very beginning of her career, in 1903, Jelisaveta Načić achieves an important success: third place in the Competition for Conceptual Design for the church in Topola, with very strong competitors and with a strict and respected jury. This success positioned her in the field, and brought her many private commissions over the next few years.

Staircase with fountain at Kalemegdan park

Working as an architect in the Belgrade Municipality Jelisaveta Načić had the opportunity to work in various fields, she was innovative and brave, and with great success took part in urban and architectural design of both private and public buildings. Working in the development and realization of projects by other architects, Jelisaveta Načić contributed to the planning of the Kalemegdan Park in the Belgrade fortress, the famous reconstruction of Terazije in 1911, as well as the unrealized design for the square in front of the Belgrade Cooperative building. During her engagement in these urban projects, she also designed independently, which is still visible today in the conserved granite neobaroque staircase with fountain that connects the main walkway (for which she had designed the decorative railing destroyed in the First World War) to Pariska Street.

Elementary school King Peter I in Belgrade

Plan drawing of the Elementary school King Peter I

Certainly the most famous architectural design by Jelisaveta Načić, a true architectural master piece, is the building of the primary school next to the Main Belgrade Cathedral, later named “Primary school King Peter I” in the street that bears the same name. The construction of a contemporary school building with 16 classrooms, electrical lighting, heating system, toilets, auditorium, large vestibule and a gymnasium was a large and ambitious task. Jelisaveta Načić designed the building in the Academic style, but slightly departing from the strict rules of symmetry and adjusting the building to the site. With the right choice of architectural and decorative elements, she emphasized the central part with a skewed facade in the center of which is the main school entrance and on the first floor the windows of the auditorium. With this design Jelisaveta Načić proved her undisputable talent, and Belgrade and Serbia gained a completely contemporary school facility. The building is today listed as cultural heritage.

Pavilion for Tuberculosis, demolished in 1919

Among her public work, Jelisaveta Načić designed in 1912 the Pavilion for Tuberculosis, which was demolished in 1919. Functional, with a large terrace for sunbathing of patients, the Pavilion was the first hospital of this kind in Serbia. Also, she is the author of the first circular kiln and other brick-making facilities in Prokop, destroyed during First World War.

House of Marko Marković in Gospodar Jovanova street in Belgrade

Jelisaveta Načić achieved considerable success in designing private homes, namely the home of bookstore owner Marko Marković from 1904, on the corner of Kapetan Mišina and Gospodar Jovanova streets, which has been recently listed as cultural heritage. With small amendments from the forth decade of the 20^th century, this house still today testifies to the continuity of city life on the Danube slope. Several private homes have been demolished over time due to war damages or changes in the urban plans, but based on a few that remain, more or less unaltered, we can create an impression about a certain type of house that was the original design of Jelisaveta Načić.

Drawings of the house of Arsa Drenovac in Belgrade from 1907

Jelisaveta Načić has also tried herself in sacred architecture. After her success at the Competition for the church in Topola, she designed the church of Alexander Nevski on the corner of Cara Dušana and Francuska streets. Today’s appearance of the church is the work of architects Petar Popović and Vasilije Androsov, based on whose project the building was continued after it was interupted during the war. The church’s foundations were started based on the project by Jelisaveta Načić, and it is not known today to which extent the project by Popović and Androsov has similarities with the original concept. The only sacred building that has been completed according to Jelisaveta Načić’s design is the small memorial church in Štimlje in Kosovo from 1920, which has been reconstructed after it was damaged in 2004.

Workers’ Housing Complex in Belgrade

The Workers’ Housing Complex from 1910-1911 (between streets Venizelosova, Komnen Barjaktara and Herceg Stjepana ), the first building constructed purposefully for residential apartments in the Balkans region, is also the work of Jelisaveta Načić. They are characterized by simple architecture, almost without any ornaments, with comfortable, functional, yet inexpensive apartments. The block is closed with a long row of buildings from the third decade of the 20^th century, which fits in with Jelisaveta’s complex and concludes a harmonious whole. This building by architect Načić has been as well as listed as cultural heritage.

Workers’ Housing Complex in Belgrade

In 1913 Jelisaveta Načić designed the Terazije arch, placed on Terazije in honor of the return of the Serbian army from the Balkan wars. The legend remains that the arch’s inscription “There are still unliberated Serbs” caused her to be taken during the First World War to the concentration camp Neusiedl. The First World War interrupted her fruitful career. She kept working on the reconstruction of damaged Belgrade buildings until she was banished to the camp in 1916. At Neusiedl she married an Albanian revolutionary and poet Luka Lukai and gave birth to a daughter. She was released from the camp and returned to Belgrade, to her mother’s, with her daughter. Later with her husband she left for Skadar, and then Dubrovnik where she remained until her death in 1955. She never again worked as an architect and never received her pension.

Elevation of the house on the corner of Srebrenička and Kosančićev venac streets from 1907

Jelisaveta Načić was a great talent. We often emphasize the fact that she was the first woman architect, but we would still talk about her as an architect if she was not a woman. That was the extent of her talent. Her designs are flawless, and we must acknowledged her extraordinary courage and perseverance to be a part of the first generation of architectural students and the first female graduate architect in the country, to be one of the first women employed in the public sector, as well as her courage to design, as a very young architect, the first modern school building, the first hospital for tuberculosis, the first circular kiln for making bricks, the first planned residential building in the Balkans. And all of this in a very short time.

Vintage postcard of Belgrade showing the new elementary school

Jelisaveta Načić is present in the urban memory of the city mostly with her extraordinary projects, but also with some concrete actions. In 2004 a street opposite her workers’ housing complex got her name. At the same time an initiative has been started to dedicate the existing building within the workers’ housing block to the memory of Jelisaveta Načić and create a park around it. This initiative, together with other similar projects, shows the willingness to save the memory of Jelisaveta Načić, and appropriately value her work and contribution to Belgrade’s architecture in the time when Belgrade was becoming a true European city.

Bojana Ibrajter Gazibara, the author of this text, is an art historian – conservator and expert associated at the Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute of Belgrade. She participated several times in her career as a guest-lecturer in various manifestations related to architecture. She also cooperated with printed and electronic media on the topics of Belgrade architecture, notable architects and heritage buildings. She is the author and co-author of several exhibitions of cultural heritage.  

Photos by Milena Zindović.

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

Preservation of the Cultural Landscape and Built Heritage represents the framework of the urban plan for the town of Perast.

Perast is located on the south-western slope of the Sveti Ilija hill, opposite the Verige strait, the natural entrance into the inner Kotor-Risan basin of the branchy Bokokotorski Bay. The town of Perast is a protected urban area which is part of the Natural and Cultural-Historical Region of Kotor inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage list.

While preparing the Urban Project the practice that tends to mere formalization of the current state was abandoned, and priority was given to the revitalization of each segment of the heritage and to the reconstruction of resources. The aim of the Urban Project is revitalization of the town and it has been carried out through the principle of continuity at the level of individual buildings, groups and complexes, the complete picture of the town with the islands and the coastline, as well as at the level of the natural environment.

Both the tradition and historical values, protected buildings and the settlement unity are here in another angel, light and plan: continuity is an integral and vital part of today’s practice, and things of the past are precious corner elements in it, even less in space than in the approaches and attitude!

The Urban Plan has been based on the fact that the town of Perast has reached “its growth limits” and that it will not expand beyond the present scope. Crucially important is the attitude that the residential function should be kept in the town. In this respect, the Plan elaborates in more detail the program of facilities, tourism and central along with the infrastructural and utility equipment, as well as the regime of road and water traffic. It does not represent a new strategy of development, but respecting the principle of the town continuity, the tradition, modernity and the future –it functionally improves the existing structures by complementing the existing facilities with new compatible facilities with adequate capacities.

The Urban Design has established the principles of renewal, the rules for each form of intervention and the limits of possible development, based on evaluation of the architectural heritage through analysis of the physical structure and characteristics, the functions of the building, blocks and free spaces from the original texture over the phases of change to the existing state.

Urban project for the city of Perast (Montenegro), prepared by the team of  MonteCEP from Kotor, was awarded the first prize in the cathegory of urban projects at the XXI Salon of urban planning, organized by the Association of urban planners of Serbia in Leskovac 2012. Team leader and the author of this text is Zorana Milošević, Dipl. -Ing. Arch.

Brownfields in the city of Banjaluka and their relevance for its’ urban history and memory.

The brownfield sites found across the City of Banja Luka are devastated and disused industries and military bases, run-down and abandoned public facilities, like hospitals, prisons, schools, cultural centres, neighbourhood centres, etc., residential buildings, as well as abandoned railway facilities and utility infrastructure, even neglected green areas. Industry had been the most important branch of economy in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1960’s through 1990’s). The city and region of Banja Luka, including the towns of Mrkonjić Grad and Prijedor, were rapidly industrialised. A class of factory workers formed from the rural populations traditionally inhabiting the area around the city and the local countryside. Banja Luka’s population now mainly consisted of factory workers, the military, and their families. New neighbourhoods and housing developments were built to accommodate these two new categories of city-dwellers, complete with all the amenities, to provide socialist standards of living (‘Pentagon’ block; Borik, Mejdan and Starcevica neighbourhoods; etc.). This process occurred simultaneously with another historic process, the construction of military facilities and ranges in Banja Luka’s rural surroundings and of barracks in the city.

Banja Luka’s plants and factories, mostly brownfields today, were planned, designed and constructed adhering to high technical, technological, sanitary, functional and architectural standards. However, they were inadequately maintained, and rules and regulations were progressively disregarded. Back in the 1970’s, environmental protection codes were not as strict as today (e.g., anti-pollution regulations); on the other hand, industries were intentionally enclosed in vast stretches of vegetation, which served both as buffer zones and recreational grounds. Industries that needed to discharge wastewater were located in an industrial zone along the River Vrbas, in the downstream direction, to the east and northeast of and away from the city centre. Industries which did not produce air pollution or wastewater, like Rudi Čajavec and Kosmos, were not located in an industrial zone but in the city.

Part of Rudi Čajavec Industries was owned by the Army (a total of five plants), but people perceived it as a true city plant: it was an enterprise consisting of twenty-four manufacturing departments. The plant employed the people living in its immediate and wider surroundings; the workers mainly came to work by bicycle, and the plant had all the amenities and services they needed during the day. Both the workers and the rest of the city identified with the plant. Banja Luka was known across Yugoslavia for its Čajavec Industries; its existence made people feel secure and protected. Čajavec has a history of its own, which is a part of the city history, comprising numerous personal, group and collective histories of its former employees.

Čajavec Industries was a special enclosure within the city, its physical layout and buildings typical of the industrial and commercial architecture of that period. Even today, it is visually very effective, especially in contrast to the adjacent residential and other buildings. It is located in an area adjoining the city core, along one of the city’s main thoroughfares, so people perceive it as a town within the city – as integrated in it, not separate or isolated. It used to have all the archetypal symbolic characteristics of urban space: several entrances, fences and walls, a network of streets, different kinds of buildings, and common open spaces. In the last few years, its grounds and facilities have been used daily for purposes different from the original ones at the time when the plant still worked (commerce, sport and recreation, health, utilities, design, consulting, catering, entertainment, higher education, etc.). This has made it an area of social convergence, turning the authentic buildings of the plant, which are in different condition but nonetheless share characteristics of the International Style, into material and non-material witnesses of an era at its end…

The communicative potential of this site has transcended the weaknesses and limitations that have marked its destiny in the last twenty years. Together with its immediate surroundings, it is a special part of the city’s urban landscape thanks to the energy it has accumulated since the late 19th century, when the first Banja Luka brickyard was built in its vicinity, at a site which is still called the same toponym – the Pascolo Brickyard. The entrepreneurial and industrial spirit, which has characterised this area over a long period of Banja Luka’s urban development, has made it special as a city site, and the time during which it played an active role in the life of the city makes it a major episode in the city’s history.

This leads to the conclusion that the preservation, maintenance and re-affirmation of the authentic spirit, visual recognisability and spatial completeness of this brownfield are becoming urgent. The diversity of this area, its qualities and neglected potential, synthesised into a clearly articulated, unique segment of the city’s urban landscape, entitle us to consider it a special entity or element of the cultural landscape, of special interest for industrial archaeology, which should ensure the kind of treatment this outstanding place deserves thanks to its identity, and help to preserve its integrity as one of Banja Luka’s cultural, social and spatial peculiarities. Its regeneration would create room for the reintroduction of some common but neglected and hidden values and meanings into our environment.

The author of the text is Dijana Simonović, M.Sc. from the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy (AGF), University of Banjaluka. She is also the author of the monograph “Landscape cities: comparison of development of urban identity of Banja Luka and Graz” (2010), published by AGF.

Dijana held a lecture on this subject at the workshop on urban regeneration of brownfield location Rudi Čajavec Industry in Banja Luka at the AGF (10th April 2013th).

Photos by Bojana Radić, AGF student.

Topic: „The methodology of conservation and restoration of brick walls, lime and mud systems & management of energy consumption”

The Summer school of Architecture takes place in Bač,Vojvodina, Serbia, 25-30 August 2013

The Summer School of Architecture is an educational and scientific project of the professional NGO “The Group of Architects” from Belgrade, established in 2010. The main idea of this project is to bring together international experts and students of various disciplines to collaborate, researching the possibilities for sustainable restoration of tangible heritage. The project activities consist of lectures, practical analysis and field work.

The program of this year’s edition of the School is divided into two modules – technological and architectural. Both of the modules are going to focus on technologies of building made of brick, with brief explanation of the concept of mixed systems applied in case of housing architecture – the application of the adobe and rammed earth.

The technology module will focus on methodology of conservation and restoration of brick walls and application of lime systems (mortars). Building the program upon the experiences of the “HEROMAT” project by Faculty of Technology – University of Novi Sad and The Provincial Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments, the participants will have the opportunity to collaborate on the ongoing research on historical material sampling and diagnostics, synthesizing protective materials and mixing consolidants for the reparation of brick walls built with lime- and mud-mortar systems.

The architectural module focuses on building data bases on “monuments of culture” and pre- and post-restoration monitoring, emphasizing so called “live” heritage, the heritage/monuments that are in use. Special part of the module will be the topic of management of energy consumption in monuments of culture, and the potential application of renewable energy resources in this domain. The buildings that are going to be in the focus of this case study (fortress, certain number of houses, restaurant of traditional cuisine) are going to be of various use/function, scattered around the municipality.

Who can apply: Summer school is open for students of architecture, technology, civil engineering, conservation and art history

fee: 299Eur (the fee covers accommodation, food and working material)

Važni datumi:

Application deadline: 10 August 2013

Summer school: 25-30 August 2013.

More information and the application form can be found at Group of architects’ website www.grupaarhitekata.org in sections News and Current projects