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.

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”.

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.

The first international academic conference Places and Technologies 2014 will be held at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade on April 3^rd and 4^th 2014, with the aim to explore and present papers, studies and projects dealing with the improvement of city spaces using technologies. The conference is organized in partnership between the Faculty of Architecture Belgrade, UrbanLab and the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade, and the official new media partner of the conference will be the  Centre for Architecture Belgrade.

The Places and Technologies 2014 conference will showcase research from the domains of Urban design, Urban planning, Design and management, Industrial and architectural design, Architectural and building technologies. From social aspect, the conference will deal with historical and philosophical component to high tech, urban sociology, innovations, ICT, as well as elements of transportation enhanced by technology up to geodesy and cartography and the ways technologies improve these fields (GIS).

The conference focus is sustainability in urban design, and it will consider social networks and microblogging, usage of technology in urban furniture, new innovative materials, high tech and high touch solutions. A hundred participants are anticipated, and around 30 experts from Europe working in the field of high technologies in both scientific and professional terms, have confirmed they participation, together with special professional guests.

Conference participants will have the opportunity to hear presentations by dr Milica Bajić Brković, tenure professor, president of ISOCARP – global association of professional planners; dr Jan Belis from Belgium who is a leading expert in structural glass applications and president of COST project; dr Stefan van der Spek from Netherlands, who works in interior design and topics such as intermodal transferpoints and  human hub;  dr Manfred Schrenk from the  Central European Institute of Technology in Austria, planner and GIS expert; and professor  Phil Jones from UK who is an expert in energy efficiency and teaches in Malesia, China and Hong Kong.

Besides key note speakers, the conference will feature special professional guests such as Jean-Louis Frechin from the leading French design company noDesign which deals with high tech and is working on projects from the French government, Citroen, Renault etc; dr Marija Todorović, electrical engineer and tenure professor whose field of expertise includes sustainable energy and green building with the use of solar power; dr Andjelka Mihajlov, sustainability expert, scientist and tenure professor at the University in Novi Sad, who leads the department for inclusion of the Western Balkans in the European flows of sustainability at the Ministry of sustainable development and urban planning; and Rade Milić, archaeologist and president of Center for urban development that realizes innovative projects for the protection of cultural heritage in Belgrade and Serbia. Technical director of the conference is Eva Vaništa Lazarević, PhD, tenure professor of the Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade University.

The choice of keynote speakers, guests and participants of the conference speaks of the organizers intentions to encourage networking and cooperation between institutions, corporations and experts, form potential for future bilateral international cooperation, open current topics to young researchers and create a platform for knowledge exchange. The deadline for abstract submission is December 10^th, and detailed requirements can be found at the conference official Web site.

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.

In a recent article regarding the RISK conference, Monica Ponce de Leon and Eliel Saarinen raise the issue of the overall impact of ongoing crisis to architectural practice. While admitting that the consequences are grave, they try to accept them as grounds for boosting innovative approaches to architecture. Here are some excerpts from the article:

(…) Whether we like it or not, our ways of life are in peril. Environmental changes are affecting all of us. (…) No one can be left untouched by the deterioration of the built environment. In some measure and at some level, we are all at risk.

In an age where arts and culture are under siege — the first to be eliminated in a budget cut — it seems then, that by taking risks we may have little to lose and potentially a lot to gain. It may be only by pursuing the new and the unconventional that we may have the opportunity to serve as catalysts for change. Now more than ever we need dramatic innovation and the kind of personal risk associated with it.

This kind of risk is not new to what we do. Architecture and planning have long been understood to have the potential to develop new methodologies and systems that will impact our physical world. Recognizing this, many practitioners have pursued new modes of practice and have taken professional risks, turning conventions upside down.

The stereotypes of the master architect and master planner as iconic figures have always been at odds with the belief that architecture and urban planning should be service professions. In recent years the critique of the master has taken strong hold and service has been offered as an answer for architecture’s apparent crisis of identity and planning’s relationship to society.

Service has multiple meanings, not all of them constructive. If we intend it to mean to be helpful to others, then at best, service conjures up a generosity of spirit; at worst, the term service is burdened with moralistic undertones … as if we know best. The word service at its root shares an uncomfortable association with servitude, suggesting the subjugation of the disciplines to the status quo, unable to effect positive change and condemning our practices to follow paths set by others.

Ultimately, stereotypes are not helpful and the question as to our raison d’etre continues to haunt us. Perhaps we should simply accept the nature and the power of our disciplines. We construct the world around us. Our ideas are material. We articulate the physical structure of the city, its buildings, and its public and private spaces; in short, we construct culture. The pursuit of innovation in social entrepreneurship is our calling card — with all of the risks it may entail.

Source: Monica Ponce de Leon and Eliel Saarinen. Constructing Culture, Portico, Vol. 11-12, No. 2, 2012

More on RISK Conference here.

Centre for Architecture Belgrade invites you to visit this fall one of the most interesting and biggest creative festivals in Southeast Europe – Ljubljana’s  Month of Design, organized by Zavod BIG.

Although a relatively young event, the Month of Design brings future into the present moment and is intended for all those who wish to experience future – today. Read their  Manifesto!

Month of Design is the first development oriented and proactive platform in Southeast Europe, or to put it simply, a visionary “industry and craft fair of good design and creativity”, that brings together 18 fields – from enterior design to transportation, from fashion to medicine, as well as 11 creative activities, so-called “creative industries” such as design, architecture, advertising etc., all based on personal creativity, knowledge and talent.

Don’t miss the forward exhibition event Design Expo, that will captivate you first with the exhibition space, and then with the exhibit itself, provocative cocktail presentations and shows on the Stage 180^o. Attend the annual slovenian design award, and the conferences Embedded design and the Finnish experience and Food and Health: future scenarios now.

Visit the exhibitions Timeless Slovenian Design and Little tourist architecture, as well as unique events Eat&Drink Design and Flower&Fashion Design. As part of the whole month of Design in the city you can visit over 50 exhibitions and event in various locations in Ljubljana’s center. This year’s conference emphasizes the visionary and the interdisciplinary.

This year the organizers would like to connect the notions of future and eternity, and motivate the visitors to become part of this intent as well as to start thinking about their own future. After all, future is not someplace we go to, but rather someplace we create for ourselves. It is therefore no accident that this year’s conference is being organized in the collaboration with the review Scenario and the experts for the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies.

Month of design in numbers: 200 exhibitors / 150 performers / 10.000 m2 of exhibition space.

We invite you to create the future with us!

Through the Centre for Architecture Belgrade you can  receive a discount of 50% on the registration fee for this festival.

Photo credits: © NASA archive and Milena Zindović

Last week the fourth International BLOK Conference took place in Belgrade.

Organized by the company Projmetal from Belgrade, in a pleasant ambience of Hotel Zira, during the two-day conference we had a chance to hear lecturers from Serbia and abroad, and discuss interesting topics such as the Vertical City, architectural competitions as part of the practice and Architecture as a form of political activism. BLOK Conference provided an excellent platform for knowledge and ideas exchange, meetings with colleagues old and new, and professional discussions, both during the formal part of the Conference through panels and discussions, and during the informal breaks when lecturers and audience, guests and hosts alike, mingled over coffee or lunch.

First day’s topic were high-rises.  It started with a lecture from Mark Hemel, co-owner of Dutch architecture studio Information Based Architecture (IBA), whose most important project is the Canton TV tower in Guangzhou, China. The simplicity of the tower’s form and the complexity of it’s structural system and programmatic solution, illustrate  Mr. Hemel’s theory that it is necessary for Architecture and its forms to achieve global importance and effects, as a result of an integration of various aspects of Design and Planning.

Winka Dubbeldam presented the work of her New York based architecture studio Archi-Tectonics that has been working since 1994. on research and development of energy-efficiant, optimized and sustainable architectural solutions. Starting with a series of housing projects, and then through unrealized current projects, Ms. Dubbeldam showed the various possibilites of complex geometries that she implements through her practice, and illustrated the complex relations between function and form, meaning and geometry, that her projects develop.

During the presentation of glass facade systems for high rises by the American company Guardian, their representative Mr. Vladimir Lazić refered to several regional examples from Sofia, Bucharest and Prishtina to illustrate the success of these projects to secure funding even in the time of the global economic crisis.  He then asked where is the Belgrade tower, a question that the subsequent panel discussion attempted to address and answer.

Director of the Institute of Urbanism Belgrade, Žaklina Gligorijević, spoke about the potentials of Belgrade to build high rises. She presented the “Study of High Rises for Belgrade” that the Institute did after several initiatives for such projects appeared in the period from 2006 – 2008. The Study aims at defining urban parameters and criteria i facilitates the evaluation of potentials for different central and New Belgrade locations to develop such projects. For such locations as the Hotel Yugoslavia, Block 26 in New Belgrade, the Dorćol Marina and the Federal Police building, in form of striking photo-montages, the spatial effect of these initiatives was shown.

This presentation served as an introduction into the panel discussion Vertical City in which Winka Dubbeldam, Mark Hemel, prof. Ružica Božović-Stamenović, Žaklina Gligorijević and Belgrade’s city architect Dejan Vasović took part. This interesting discussion yielded several interesting facts and opinions. The city architect talked about Belgrade’s so-far negative experiences with high rises, referencing the difficulties in maintenance of housing towers, and the lack of parking in office towers. Guests form abroad suggested a defined and clear vision of Belgrade’s future development is needed before any urban restrictions can be made. Although it was concluded Belgrade has potential to, in the future, become the home of an iconic tower, the question of motivation for such a project was raised. Different European cities have dealt with the issue in different ways, and Belgrade’s city government, planners and architects should first agree on the city’s future image and vision, and then decide whether extreme high-rises are a part of that identity.

One of the lectures from the second day of the Conference also belongs to the discourse of the Vertical City. Florentine architect David Fisher, for technical reasons, appeared on the second day and presented his concept of Dynamic Architecture. In his opinion Design should be a consequence of Technology, and today’s architecture and building techniques lag behind the technological advances. As a result of his theory, he developed a series of projects for housing and mixed-use high rises whose floors rotate 360 degrees. These buildings benefit from the experiences from various fields of industry and industrial design, so that their solution would be technicaly and functionaly optimized, and energy-efficient. Time designs these buildings, says the architect, while shoowing us unrealistic and futuristic images of the new Paris, London, New York or Dubai skyline. He also announced the beginning of construction for the first dynamic tower in an undisclosed location. Some of you will remember that we had recently the chance to read about a similar project being offered to New Belgrade.

The second day we also heard to interesting lectures that both treat Architecture as a political tool. Estonian architect Veronica Valk presented her concept of Compact City she has been developing through 13 years of practice in Talin, as the co-owner of architecture studio Zizi&Yoyo. Her most important porject is, without doubt, the revitalization and densification of the Talin Waterfront. A former Sviet military zone, this space is available again, after 50 years, to the residents of Talin. Ms. Valk’s work transcends conventional architectural practices and becomes activism, similar to the New York model of the High line revitalization. She forms NGOs with the purpose of protecting and reusing existing structures and organizes festivals with the aim of attracting Talin’s residents and visitors back to the Waterfront. While critiquing Talin’s city government, Ms. Valk emphasized that sustainable development isn’t just energy-efficient building, but also the renovation and reuse of existing city structures. As an example, she cited the destiny of an old Soviet multifunctional hall whose 35000 m2 are now used as a police and military practice field, while the Municipality organizes an architectural competition for its new headquarters of a similar size on the adjoining site. Ms. Valk also noticed the parallels between Belgrade and Talin, in an unstable political climate that hinders the progress of revitalization projects and initiatives, and in a large number of abandoned and devastated city spaces that need to be rediscovered and reused.

The final lecture of this year’s conference was from the Spanish architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo who presented his research on the topic of Envelopes. Defining the Envelope as a complex and politically charged building element, he illustrated the possibilities of its manipulations and transformations through a series of projects from his own practice. For him, the Envelope is more than a facade, it is a techological, political, and ecological tool that, through its multi-layered meaning, becomes the main architectural feature of his projects.

After these inspiring lectures the BLOK 2012 Conference vas concluded, with a promise for another meeting next year. In the next two days the Conference visitors and all interested Belgrade residents had the chance to enjoy, free of charge, the Film marathon of architectural cinema that was organized with the collaboration of the Yugoslav Film Archive.

Photos:  Rade Kovač

Entrance is free to all visitors.