The project Urban pockets of Belgrade deals with abandoned urban spaces with the aim of including the local community in their improvement and activation based on the principles of sustainable design. With an appropriate intervention these spaces can become part of daily life of local residents and present an important contribution to the overall quality of life in the neighborhood.

Urban pocket  Room with a view in Baba Višnjina street in Belgrade, had its opening in 2011 and covers approximately 1000 m2.   The project’s Investor was the municipality of Vračar, and the project won the Grand Prix of the Third Salon of  Landscape Architecture in 2009. This year it has been nominated for the the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award 2013.

The design includes a zone of active recreation with fitness equipment, a zone of calm relaxation with seating and a central zone of gathering where the seating sculpture is located. Symbolically, the authors of the Room with a View urban pocket, Vesna Gvozdenov i Jovana Kovačević, both lanscape architects, wanted their intervention to provide a different experience of urban space – to create a room with a different view.

The projects main idea was to encourage residents to acknowledge green areas as extensions to their own living rooms and to transmit the model of behavior from the inside of their home to a public open space, which is just as much part of their everyday life.

The main focal point is the sculpture Room with a View. The structure is inspired by the urban tissue of the Vračar municipality.  The birds are part of the structure, but are emphasized through color and form and simbolize the freedom of movement in a public space. The sculpture provides visual identity and becomes a new meeting place and a landmark. Additionally,  the space is visualy dominated by a graffiti, work of  street artist  Branko Tešević.

The authors of this urban intervention successfully created a space tailored to the users needs, increased the awareness of the public about public space and contemporary art, and above all to promote landscape architecture  as a multidisciplinary field that deals with open public spaces.

Open spaces are the hubs of social and urban life, and should therefore be maintained and improved, housing various activities and different events and processes, rather then be perceived as leftover spaces between the surrounding architecture.

Text and photos: Vesna Gvozdenov

From June 11th to September 11th the streets of Belgrade will once again provide the setting for the Filmstreet cinema. In different city locations, still starting at 8:30 pm, we will have the opportunity to enjoy old and new film hits. This year’s Filmstreet starts off with Woody Allen’s classic “Annie Hall”, on Monday, June 11th, on the corner of Simina and Knjeginje Ljubice streets (opposite the bar Centrala).

Here’s the entire program for this year’s Filmstreet

This week we visited and enjoyed Mixer Festival which held place in the Belgrade quarter of Savamala for the first time this year. During the Festival many otherwise unknown or not’visited locations in Savamala were refreshed and open for the public. The most important among them is certainly the building of the Belgrade Cooperative in Karađorđeva street. You can still visit the Festival and all its events for free today and tomorrow, since it closes June 2nd.  You can also take a look at our photographs and impressions from Mixer on our Facebook album.

Autor ove duhovite skulpture je Florentijn Hofman. Postavljena je u okviru ovogodišnjeg Openart bijenala u mestu Öreboro u Švedskoj.

Ovaj postament, podignut sredinom XIX veka sa ciljem da se na njemu postavi uobičajena statua monarha na konju, a koji je sticajem različitih okolnosti ostao prazan, korišćen je na različite načine, da bi se već duže vreme na njemu smenjivale postavke dela savremene umetnosti.

U okruženju odmerenog klasicističkog nasleđa, skulpture koje se smenjuju na četvrtom postamentu uvek predstavljaju kulturni i prostorni incident, provokaciju, često na granici dobrog ukusa. Aktuelne predloge procenite sami – da li su izvanredni primeri savremenog umetničkog izraza i vešti prenosioci ključnih poruka, ili nemaštoviti i vulgarni odrazi potrošačkog društva.

Zvanični sajt programa The Fourth Plynth.

On October 7th 2009. Centre for Architecture team will take part in the realization of the project OPEN DESIGN STUDIO 04, Culture Space, dedicated to exploration of new possibilities of promoting culture in public spaces.  

Public lectures at part of the project activities will be held in the facilities CK-13, in Novi Sad, from 7-9 pm.

Find out more about the project and the complete program at OPEN DESIGN STUDIO.