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.

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 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.

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.

Department for Communities and Local Government of England published The National Planning Policy Framework in 2012.

At the time when space management policies of our cities lack vision, solid and clear structure for future development, we strongly recommend the English example. The sustainable development paradigm acts as a matrix for the Framework to address the most important issues of urban planning, such as: urban economy, sustainable transport systems, quality infrastructure, wide range of high quality homes, good design etc. The issues of (urban) environment protection have also been taken into account. Conserving and enhancing natural and historic environments and meeting the challenges of climate changes are equally important parts of the document.

The National Planning Policy Framework is downloadable here.

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

A lecture on the application of the Urban Design Compendium was held at the Faculty for construction manqagement of the Union University in Belgrade on 22.2.2013. On behalf of the Centre for Architecture Belgrade this publication was presented to architecture students by editors Goran Petrović and Darko Polić.

Superkilen urban park by Danish architecture studio BIG, Berlin-based landscape architecture studio TOPOTEK1 and artists group SUPERFLEX from Copenhagen, conceived as a giant exhibition of urban best practice by incorporating everyday objects from more than 60 different cultures, constitutes a rare fusion of architecture, landscape and art.

The kilometer long urban park wedges through the Norrebro area just north of the Copenhagen city center, creating a different yet unifying space in one of the most ethnically diverse and socially challenged neighborhoods in Denmark. The aim of the invited competition initiated by the City of Copenhagen and Realdania Foundation back in 2005 was to create a truly unique urban space with a strong identity on a local and global scale. The 13.4 million euro development started construction in 2009 and opened to the public in June 2012.

Superkilen is divided into three color-coded areas, each with a distinct atmospheric and functional condition: the large and expansive red square which serves as an extension of the adjacent sports hall offering a range of recreational and cultural activities; the black square as the heart of the Superkilen where locals can meet by the Moroccan fountain or a game of chess; and a linear green stretch as a natural meeting place for large-scale sports activities providing vantage points over the surroundings. The three areas form the backdrop to the surrealist collection of global urban diversity of more than 100 objects from 60 cultures which reflect the true nature of the local neighborhood. The objects were selected through an intensive curatorial process in close collaboration with the local population.

“Rather than a public outreach process towards the lowest common denominator or a politically correct post rationalization of preconceived ideas navigated around any potential public resistance – we proposed public participation as the driving force of the design leading towards the maximum freedom of expression. By transforming public procedure into proactive proposition we curated a park for the people by the people – peer to peer design – literally implemented”, says Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of  BIG.

The objects ranging from exercise gear, including muscle beach LA to sewage drains from Israel, palm trees from China and neon signs from Qatar and Russia are all accompanied by a small stainless plate inlaid in the ground describing each of the objects and their origin.

Nanna Gyldholm Moller, project leader from BIG, says: “When our team was invited to propose a project in this neighborhood we realized that we had to do more than just urban design. Rather than plastering the urban area with Danish designs we decided to gather the local intelligence and global experience to create a display of global urban best practice comprising the best that each of the 60 different cultures and countries have to offer when it comes to urban furniture.”

The Copenhagen-based art group Superflex took the public participation further into the extreme by handpicking five groups of people and travelling to the country of their origin to document the process of selection. “Our mission was to find the big picture in the extreme detail of a personal memory or story, which on the surface might appear insignificant, but once hunted down and enlarged became super big. A glass of palestinian soil in a living room in Norrebro serving as a memory of a lost land, enlarged to a small mountain of palestinian soil in the park. A distant Mediterranean flirt in the seventies symbolised by a great iron bull, hunted down and raised on a hill in the park.“, explains the group SUPERFLEX

Throughout the Superkilen red maple, Japanese cherry trees, larix, palm trees from China and Lebanese cedar trees are planted to offer more shade and vegetative interest, augmenting the existing trees. The diversity in tree and plant species complements the diversity of the site furniture. “While the Romantic Gardens of the 19^th Century attempted to give the visitors an exotic experience of the world that was still big and hard to travel around – allowing people to witness a Chinese pagoda or a Greek temple – the Super Park in Copenhagen does the opposite. Rather than perpetuating a perception of Denmark as a mono-ethnic people, the Super Park portrays a true sample of the cultural diversity of contemporary Copenhagen”, explains Martin-Rein Cano from Topotek1.

A bike path runs through the entire park improving the infrastructure locally in the area while integrating it into the broader, citywide context.

Photos and drawings: © Bjarke Ingels Group