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.

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.

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

Dubravka Đukanović, architect – conservator and the Director of the Novi Sad based architectural office Studio D’Art, as part of the current project by CAB: Women in Architecture, talks about her versatile career, the importance of architectural heritage and the influence of interpersonal relations on architecture.

On Beginnings, Experience and Opportunities

Aesthetics is, in its wide sense, in the base of all my interests and choices since early youth. In that light my decision to study architecture came naturally. I also seriously considered studying design, but in architecture I recognized the possibility to satisfy my curious, versatile spirit by trying out various spheres of this complex field.

During my two decades long professional career I was lucky enough to have opportunities opening for a layered growth, by acquiring knowledge and skills in the fields of architectural design, interior design, urban renewal, historiography, teaching and building realizations in the widest possible sense, from construction to managing complex projects. Of course, endless hard work, perseverance, persistence, patience and composure in time of temptation, as well as faith in my own values and ideals, enabled me to satisfy an extremely personal need ‘to throw the dice on.’

Photo by N. Milićević

On Women in Architecture

Quality is what sets you apart, regardless of gender. Clients recognize experts which are supreme in their profession and are happy to collaborate with them. What set female architects apart from their colleagues is a particular expressiveness, a controlled ego and a desire to treat equaly and synthesize all parts of the project and all participants in the project.

An additional demand for professionally engaged women is the balance between professional and personal life. A dedication to family and a dedication to work are two equally valuable parts that make complete a successful women.

On Important Projects

In the field of architectural design those are various individual residences I’ve done by the principle of total design. In a programmatic sense those are not the most important or most demanding tasks I worked on, but those are the projects in which I consistently expressed my personal sensibility in transferring the psychological profile of the people I met into spatial relations and colors to create a backdrop to their lives.

Figure 2. Residence in Petrovaradin

When you get to know the people you design for, in the base of the design brief is a particular link between architecture and psychology, and architecture outgrows the sphere of personal feeling of the designer towards the space and topic. This notion of architecture I first recognized during a visit a long time ago to the Villa Müller by Adolf Loos in Prague, in which this idea shines through its concept, spatial relations, textures, colors and every detail. The pursuit of total design, exclusivity and establishing a personal connection between architecture and its user certainly is what determines my projects, especially projects of individual houses, and that is probably where it’s visible the author of these buildings in a woman.

I also consider as very important projects the historiography writings, created as result of research of cultural heritage of Vojvodina, which I have published, so far, in the shape of two books dealing with the study of the origin of form and shape of religious buildings built during the 18^th, 19^th and first decades of the 20^th century.

On Influences

I’ve adopted the spirit of Belle Époque and the ideas of the Modern movement during my studies. For years I’ve been following the work of various authors. I deeply believe that no presentation can replace the personal experience of architecture and space, and I often visit the work that I find intriguing. From early youth I love to travel, and most of my time during travels is dedicated to artistic and architectural work from all periods. All this significantly affects my work.

Figure 3. Residence in Sremska Kamenica

During my professional career I often changed the surroundings and the environment in which I grew as an architect. The focus of my interests was in the fields of architectural design, heritage renewal, project management, research and scientific work, teaching, and in shorter periods in engineering and urbanism. Each of the topics I dealt with brought new insights and special experience which gathers and inevitably influenced the evolution of my relationship to architecture and space. If I would have to single out one name, the cooperation with Professor Ivan Antić significantly marked my relationship to my profession.

On Interpersonal Relations and Cooperation

I think that a quality personal relationship between the designer and the client is a precondition to good work and I always try, regardless of our differences, to find and nurture a thread which will provide a base for good cooperation. I avoid conflict situations, and the fact that for years now I am in a position to select the work and clients I consider a great privilege.

The difference in education, upbringing, personal and professional ethics in the relationship between the designer and client in not an impasse, but when such a split, in any sense, is prominent between you and any member of the team you are leading, it will eventually become a problem. I try to invest a lot into every associate and every work participant and positioned so they reach their maximum potential. When I have to make a decision to remove someone from the team, from any reason, for me it is a challenging struggle with my own emotions.

Figure 4. Interior of Vojvođanska bank branch office in Subotica

On Advice

I rarely give advice. I rather point to possible solutions and paths leading to best possible results. However, I enjoy exchanging ideas with young people and in these conversations I try to pass on to them some of my life and professional experiences.

Love towards the profession and an unconditional commitment to work and permanent growth, essentially determine the path of professional progress, but to a large extent determine also our life path. When you love what you do, everyday challenges outgrow the level of work obligations and become a game you enjoy. That is the only way a logn professional career can become an endless source of pleasure, a field of achievements and an important part of a good life.

Figure 5. Residence and kindergarten Wonderland in Novi Sad

The best advice is sublimated in a old Chinese saying, whose message is that only a small percent of people understand what their life is about. I try to to look at myself and the world around me from that perspective. With knowledge and experience, acquired with continuous work throughout many year and investing in yourself, comes a clearer outlook on various influential aspects and a better understanding of events and people around you. That is, with ethics, lack of vanity and power to calmly weather through foreseen and unforeseen storms, a condition of success, regardless whether it’s reached through status, glory, power, money or all of the above.

Maybe it’s useful to transfer to young people the knowledge that life and career are long events and the line can be drawn only at their end.

Figure 6. Competition entry for municipal library in Novi Sad

On Cultural Heritage

The evaluation of cultural and in that context architectural heritage is of essential value to the establishing of our identity – personal, family, local, national, European. Through a deep and honest commitment to research and promotion of cultural heritage I want to contribute to its interpretation and evaluation, as well as the establishing of an expert and general responsible relationship to the existing built structure and historical buildings. In that light, I find design in context to be the most demanding and most subtle expression of work for a contemporary architect.

Dubravka Đukanović, PhD, is an architect and assistant at the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, where she teaches on architectural heritage, conservation and protection. She finished her graduate, post-graduate and PhD studies at the Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade University, and acquired a rich professional experience on various aspects of architecture while working in Novi Sad. Since 2005, she leads her own Studio for architecture and design STUDIO D’ART. Besides the Novi Sad architecture department, Dubravka was also guest lecturer at the Miklos Ybl Faculty of Architecture, Szent István University in Budapest. She received several professional awards and honors.

As part of the current project by  CAB: Women in architecture, Ljiljana Bakić, architect and the female half of the famous architectural duo Bakić & Bakić, talks on architecture, women and Belgrade with Milena Zindović.

On women in architecture in Serbia, we certainly cannot talk without mentioning Ljiljana Bakić, an author who, both individually and in cooperation with her husband  Dragoljub Bakić, designed and built a large number of buildings in Belgrade and other cities in Serbia, as well as abroad. Today, the couple lives in their house in Višnjička Banja, which they designed, and looks forward first and foremost to the successes of their grandchildren in USA and Poland.

Last year, Ljiljana Bakić published the book The Anatomy of  B&B Architecture  - a comprehensive publication which refers to hers and Dragoljub’s fruitful careers. Unlike other architectural editions, this book is not only a monograph of the work of authors Bakić & Bakić, but a detailed review and analysis of all the elements that influenced their careers and their architecture. The social and economic conditions in the former Yugoslavia, tumuluous breakup of the country, but also personal experiences, contacts and travels – all influenced the architecture and the specific artistic expression of Ljiljana and Dragoljub  Bakić.

The rich archive presented in this publication includes photographs and drawings of buildings, with detailed explanations of not only the concepts and ideas, but of all the aspects of the building realization, the problems and difficulties, as well as the successes experienced by designers. In addition, the book contains published professional papers and articles, personal and professional correspondence, family photographs, testimonies and memories of colleagues, teachers, mentors, clients.

Figure 2: Ljiljana and Dragoljub Bakić at the opening of the Pionir sports hall 

In her book, Ljiljana also looks back at the years of pausing from her work as an architect. After returning from Kuwait, where Dragoljub worked for Energoprojekt and she for a local architectural firm Said Breik & Marwan Kalo Consulting Engineers, Ljiljana gave birth to two daughters. The pace of work at Energoprojekt was such that it required great sacrifice and long hours, even entire nights in the office. There were also often trips to the construction sites overseas. I realized that our family life was impossible to organize if I were also absent from home with my architecture, you never know for how long. I decided to return to the profession once our daughters get old enough for kindergarten.

Ljiljana Bakić returned to architecture, working side by side with her husband in Energoprojekt – Architecture and Urbanism. Milica Šterić hired me because she liked me. Otherwise, she was not fond of hiring women into Energoprojekt.  Bakić (Dragoljub) worked on a competition and they were lacking help, so she invited me. She liked how I worked and gave me a job in Energoprojekt. For many years she was our beloved director.

Figure 3: Pionir sports hall  in Belgrade

Certainly their most famous work is the Pionir sports hall in Belgrade, and the adjoining ice hall. These two buildings are not just favorite Belgrade destinations, but architectural icons of the post-modernist Belgrade of the 70s and 80s. Competition for the design of the complex and the sports hall Pionir was announced in 1972, with a deadline of only 9 days. In Energoprojekt, this task was entrusted to Ljiljana and Dragoljub Bakić. They drafted a complex that consisted of a multifunctional sports hall, a swimming pool and a velodrome. The first phase – a multifunctional hall, had to be completed and opened by June 1973 for the European boxing championships. The detailed design was developed in parallel with the construction of the building in, what Ljiljana called, “hurricane” pace.

We did not have time to wander in the labyrinth of our own brains. What was at work was our dissident instinct against any form of dictatorship, ruling clichés, petrified in the inviolable principles of modern architecture. The well-known rule of modernism, that the form should be the expression of the volume and contents of the interior, which in sports facilities is always the volume of the hall, Pionir did not follow. We wanted it to be the apotheosis of the spirit of sports and games, a dynamic protagonist of the urban scene.

Figure 4: Pionir ice hall 

Although Pionir sports hall was designed for hockey as well, with time it was never used for this purpose, and in 1977 it was decided to build a separate ice hall in the complex. Compared to the multifunction sports hall, the ice hall has a simpler and cleaner form, which establishes an interesting relationship with both the site slope and the existing hall. Just like the sports hall Pionir, the ice hall’s success is primarily measured by the satisfaction of its users. Both buildings were awarded the Grand Prix of the Belgrade Architecture Salon, in 1974 and in 1978.

Figure 5: Institute for Rehabilitation from Non-specific Lung Diseases in Soko Banja

Ljiljana Bakić individually designed the Institute for Rehabilitation from Non-specific Lung Diseases in Soko Banja, 1974-1975. Working on this facility, she implemented her own particular ideas about the psychological and social impact of architecture. Taking into account the needs of the patients of the Institute, as well as affecting their behavior during their stay in the facility, she shaped the inside and the outside of an appropriate and successful building.  About her approach to architecture, Ljiljana says: Architecture is a sociological phenomenon. No fooling around with various details, but thinking of those who will use it. Without this aspect, sociological and anthropological, you cannot be an architect at all. If you do not set your task in a certain place, with certain population, or the character of the population. If you do not understand what you need to achieve with this building – it’s a lost cause.

Figure 6: Housing estate Nova Galenika in Zemun, Belgrade

The creative team Bakić&Bakić is also famous for two large housing estates in Belgrade: Nova Galenika in Zemun and Višnjička Banja. Inspired by the sloped location, but also by their stay in Finland, in Višnjička Banja they created a residential complex with an almost “mountain” character, in warm colors and materials and with expressive sloped roofs. First they designed the urban layout of the project, which consisted of collective and individual housing units, central facilities, a school, two kindergartens and the entire necessary infrastructure. The estate was realized in two stages, and the second stage buildings where designed by Ljiljana herself.

Figure 7: Row houses in the Višnjička banja housing estate in Belgrade

Unfortunately, the planned programs where never completely built – neither housing units, nor the central and auxiliary facilities. Ljiljana Bakić‘s design for one of the proposed kindergartens was built in 1986, and the estate only got a school last year. The commercial functions were taken over by illegally built buildings which do not fit into the particular aesthetics and form of the buildings and the entire project.  There was never funding for such things, not even in during socialism. All estates always stayed unfinished, half-made. You just arrange 500, 600, 700, 800 residences and that was it. And where you will buy bread and milk, where your kids will go to school, that was left undone. – Ljiljana comments today.

Figure 8: Congress centre and hotel Sheraton in Harrare, Zimbabwe

The architecture and experience of the couple Bakić was significantly marked by travels and work abroad, in Finland, in Kuwait, in Zimbabwe. Both in Serbia and overseas, they won numerous awards and honors. Although their best work was a result of their teamwork, the Serbian Association of Architects (SAS) decided to award the 1994 Grand Prix for Architecture only to Dragoljub, completely ignoring  Ljiljana’s work. Dragoljub refused the awards and just did not take it, which is something any normal person with character would do. This year was subsequently completed with both our names.

Figure 9: Congress centre in Harrare, Zimbabwe

On women in architecture, Ljiljana Bakić says: When I started working in 1962, it was a difficult time for women. There was a lot of depreciation. In my opinion, the women in big offices have always been the ones who developed the ideas, even if they were not theirs to start with. Even if the initial idea was not much, they would work to develop it into a successful project.

Ljiljana emphasizes Ivanka Raspopović as an example of a neglected female author, commenting on her cooperation with Ivan Antić:  - Those two museums – the one at the confluence of Sava and Danube and the one in Kragujevac – that is the best work they created. The whole set up of the museum – that was all Ivanka’s work.

For herself she says : My story is different, because I always worked with  Dragoljub. He was more active in acquiring work, and I was drawing more. I didn’t have to make my way through the architecture world on my own.   

Figure 10. Competition entry for the New Acropolis Museum in Athens

Today, Ljiljana is not actively designing, but she is still dealing with architecture and the city. Through her book, she reveals the possibilities of an idealistic approach to architecture, with the belief that the society can be changed with architecture. That’s why today she is most concerned by the lack of vision and ideas, and the neglect of our built environment. In fact, my only issue today is how Belgrade is a terrible city, terribly neglected. It’s unforgivable. That is something our architects are not dealing with at all. They only care about how to get a job somewhere, build something, but what the whole image of Belgrade looks like nobody cares – and that is a tragedy.

The author of the article is  Milena Zindović.

Illustrations are taken from the book Anatomy of B&B Architecture by Ljiljana Bakić.

Ivana Anja Milić, technical director and co-founder of one of the biggest privately owned construction companies in Serbia– Arhi.pro, as part of the current project CAB: Women in architecture, talks about her professional development, the state of architecture in Serbia and the position of women in architecture, and gives advice to young colleagues.

 On Approach to Work

I like doing interiors. I believe all my clients for whom I did residential interiors are really happy and say they recognize the female capability of “packing” an apartment and furniture. Since the nineties I’m also designing furniture, which led me to open Arhi.pro carpentry production in 2002. For me, it’s like a hobby I really enjoy.

The circumstances in practice have led me since 2000 down the path of corporate architecture, architecture conditioned by brand standards. I seized the opportunity and learned to handle design according to the book of standards and budget, leaving room also for creativity. This is why my list of references includes a large number of renowned international corporations.

Figure 1. Residence in Zvezdara, Belgrade

In these projects you cannot identify a particular feminine style, but I did win all these clients with a feminine approach: carefully listening to their needs because large corporations expect your absolute commitment to creating their work place. This means a lot of patience and drafting of millions of options while listening to millions of client’s wishes. Women are made for this.

Otherwise, I also like designing restaurants, I realized several interiors of restaurants and cafes, and I’m currently working on one new restaurant. Additionally, architectural competitions are like an obligatory workout, we must always practice to stay in shape. I always work on them in a team, with a good friend, or with a group of colleagues from Arhi.pro.

Figure 2. Restaurant Le Moliere in Belgrade

 On Success

I don’t see that as a woman I’ve done anything different than if I was a man. I just had more difficulties rising from the architectural crowd in an environment where there is not enough work for even a tenth of students which enroll in architecture yearly. Clients, when they picture hiring an architect, more often think of a man, and that is another dogma I had to overcome at the beginning of my career.

Professional success is actually the result of a good idea, resourcefulness and tenacity in life, and the use of real once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. It’s the universal rule, regardless of gender.

Figure 3. Interior of a branch office of Societe Generale Bank

 On The Female Principle

Is there a female principle in architecture? Is the Second Girls High School by Milica Krstić really a female building? Would a lay person say: This must have been drawn by a woman? Or could it be said for the Elementary school King Peter First by Jelisaveta Načić? Certainly, something like that cannot be claimed for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, by architect Kazuyo Sejima.

When it comes to creativity, the world is divided into talented and less talented, not into men and women.

Otherwise, there is a running joke among engineers on the sensibility of men that enroll in architecture school, so I would gladly and jokingly conclude that working in architecture is already an affinity for female principles: neatness, harmony, aesthetics, proportion, decoration, functionality.

Figure 4. Design of corporate furniture

On Influences

When you are young, you can easily answer this question, because the beginning is always inspired by admiration for famous architects, and memory of your mentor and a few great professors which have led you toward the practice. But when you are already in the third decade of your career, you cannot answer by simply citing a few names.

Looking back, I see that it’s the symbiosis of questions of Who and What influenced me: teachers, role models, team members, but also changes brought by social and economic conditions (from early nineties until today), literature, travels, a variety of clients, international corporations which have been the majority of my clientele and which have particularly influenced my direction primarily toward corporate architecture.

Figure 5. Interior of the Iraqi residence in Belgrade

A creative professional (artist, writer, architect…) grows with time and experience, passes many creative phases and keeps learning until the end of his working life. If I would name only the key points in time of my development on the path of becoming an architect, it would present the following chronology:

-   Architect mother, growing up in a house always full of architects; drawing as the basic mode of expression,; two drafting tables with rulers as necessary furniture of a two room apartment; Rotring rulers my mother used even when she was cutting up cakes.

-   My studies and the luck my generation had when freshmen where accepted by doyens in teaching; the priceless value to have my first consciousness about architecture built by Brana Milenković, Darko Marušić, Milan Lojanica, Ranko Radović, Borko Novaković, Zoran Petrović, Đorđe Zloković.

-   Teaching at the Faculty of Architecture from 1996 – 1999 with professor Dimitrije Mladenović ; working in offices from second year of studies until the opening of my own office.

-   Moving into private practice; partners and team members in each business until today are what finely shapes us and creates our final expression. The inevitable mutual influence and symbiosis of ideas in co-authored work is a bigger treasure in practice than being exclusively a “lone rider”.

All these years an unaltered feeling of excitement at seeing Le Corbusier’s projects and buildings. Every time I think: that’s it, there’s nothing else.

Female role models? Zaha Hadid, Kazuyo Sejima, Maya Lin… I could not call them role models, but they are certainly an inspiration, an incentive for women to become more and more visible and present in the future of global architecture.

Figure 6. Apartments at Zlatibor

 On Advice

Architecture is learned until the end of your working years. There isn’t one moment where you don’t have to keep learning, exploring and looking for examples: trends, technology, materials are all changing.

Don’t decide what you will do in architecture before you pass through everything in your professional practice. Set aside first two years of professional practice as a continuation of your studies. You should go through all stages of work until the realization of the building. Even folding drawings has a lot of essence and science for further progress. A good concept is not worth anything if you haven’t developed it in drawings, dimensioned, detailed, folded it into binders and taken it to a construction site, then answered all question there until the construction end and seen the concept 1:1 realized.

It is great luck to have where to keep learning, so fight for such opportunities.

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. (Harold Geneen)

And of course, because you’re young, don’t be afraid to bring out your own ideas, because they are fresh and progressive.

Figure 7. IT park Inđija in construction

 On Architecture in Serbia

Architecture in Serbia has had a major professional crisis at the beginning of the nineties, which is still going on. Primarily, the clients have beaten architects in the knowledge of drawing a project, where the fight for square meters turned into the demise of urban development.

Characteristically economical in paying “paper”, local clients have at their disposal a wide offer of cheap drawing everywhere. The price of our work has been brought down to a minimum, and the results of cheap projects are actually bad projects, because money is the measure of time: if you charged little you must quickly finish the work and submit just about anything. There is no time to develop the project stages, question the concept, solutions, and options, and analyze the house in all criteria. In the developed world project are done much longer, everyone understands the design process takes time. However, here even the foreign clients quickly adapt and learn to force short deadlines for already established low prices.

The buildings that have appeared in our streets have sealed the urban image of the city for the next hundred years. There are boulevards, streets and squares ruined by real-estate entrepreneurship. Building permits actually approve zoning parameters of construction, energy capacities, but no one has yet introduced an architectural permit! I would gladly fight for architectural approval as part of the construction procedure. We require the largest number of approvals in the procedure of obtaining the permit, and have a large number of architecturally unacceptable buildings.

It is necessary to raise awareness that for the same price, and even small construction budgets, you can make a building where the aesthetics is not overlooked, as well as the awareness that the growth of tourism is connected to the attractive development of the city. Small investments could bring appropriate economic benefits from tourism.

Finally, it is necessary to raise awareness that in this way we are not leaving to the next generations a quality city image. The psychology of the people is connected to the condition is which it grows up and the surroundings in physical and aesthetic sense. The improvement of the city image is at the same time care for the psychological development of our children, their future relation to cultural values, relation to pretty and ordered.

Figure 8. First award, competition entry for Banca Intesa HQ

 On Women in Architecture

Essentially women are prone to aesthetics and it is natural architecture is an attractive choice of studies for them. Architecture is beautiful studies, but physically hard work. This is why many women give up such strain. No defined working hours, projects are always done overtime. If you are drawing a house until late at night, you cannot stop designing even in your dreams; you keep drawing and travelling through your spaces while sleeping. When a project or competition in being finalized, we are not there for our families for days, lunch has to be made by someone else.

Very few families will accept and support this, so, when we talk about women who are accomplished architects, they are often married to an architect, or single, devoted to the profession. It is hard to live with an architect husband, let alone a wife, because of a great absence from family life.

I believe that until recently this was the only reason women after Faculty diminish in their visibility in architectural authorship, but I also believe that in the future this will be overcome, in accordance with the contemporary European initiative for gender equality that advocates stronger presence of women in all spheres of society. Architecture is considered a male profession because women give up before they even begin, and not because drawing a good house is really a “male thing”.

Women, if they don’t give up on the true face of the profession and embark on the adventure of author architecture, besides design briefs, authorities, the office, clients and family, also have to fight against a large amount of male vanity and chauvinism which are synonymous to the architectural profession.

I am very happy that Serbia already has Zoca (Savičić), Nina (Gligorijević), Jelena (Vojvodić), Eva (Vaništa Lazarević), Grozdana (Šišović), Biljana (Gligorić), Vesna (Cagić), Ksenija (Bulatović), Dragana (Vasiljević), Milena (Kordić)… Together we are stronger.

Anja Ivana Milić is the founder, co-owner and technical director of the company Arhi.pro which has been working successfully for more than 10 years in Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, in the fields of architectural design and engineering  construction and furniture design and production. Famous for her work with the biggest world companies present in Serbia on design and branding of their offices, as well as for the cooperation with big world architectural offices from London, Washington, Tokyo, Melbourne, on projects in Serbia and Montenegro. She received several awards and prizes and is an active member of professional associations, as well as associations dealing with female entrepreneurship. Since 2011  Anja is the ambassador of female entrepreneurship in Serbia, as part of the WENS project of the European Union.   

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.

Snežana Vesnić, founding partner of the architectural studio Neoarhitekti from Belgrade and an award-winning author, as part of the project by CAB: Women in architecture, speaks about her most important projects, the complexity of architecture, stereotypes and the importance of making the right decision in architecture. 

On Important Projects

The building for company Textil from Užice was created following a large number of awarded and unbuilt competition entries. Still, today it seems to me that to design such a building would be even harder. It was the time right after many problematic years, in every sense and for all, so I think that the will to create something particular, big, was determining that period of mid twothousands. I don’t think there is anything especially feminine in this project. It was designed as a statement and I believe it shows as its integrity. All related to this building was designed without compromises and as such realized.

Figures 1. and 2. Building for company Textil in Užice, Serbia

On Approach to Architecture

For me, architecture is something in between two conditions, the condition before and the condition after architecture, when it comes to architects. It’s complicated to explain what happens and what is and for whom the beginning of something, when does the end begin and when does it really end and how, as well as what is and for whom interesting in the process. I would mention talent and intuition. Talent is related to conceptualization, and intuition to the concept. The rest is character.

Things are not universal. Ideas are universal, even ideas about architecture, and everyone should decide for themselves what, how and why.

Figure 3. Competition entry for blocks 25 and 26, New Belgrade

On The Female Principle

It is possible to define everything as a position from which certain things are observed and certain decisions are made. If it’s about a principle, then it’s not important who demonstrates that priniciple. I think architecture itself does not differentiate a male and female priniciple, and that everything else is a stereotype of appearance and can be regarded as a question of sensibility or methodology. However, I think in this regard the final product is much more determined by circumstances and the manner in which you place yourself in relation to context.

When I take a look back to the situations I found myself in, I don’t think anything was a result of being a woman, but I do think that was the result of my attitude and relationship to architecture. Generally, architecture is not a feminine profession and I don’t expect a demonstration of a female principle, so in that sense I don’t think it necessary to point out any differences. It is what it is and if it wasn’t so it would not be architecture but something else. In architectural education, maybe there is room for such differentiations: women are forgiven their approach to form, and men are forgiven their (in)completness. The concept remains as a question of decision.

Figure 4. Archeological Heritage Park, Mnajar Qim, Malta

On Career Traps

All traps are to be avoided. Since this is impossible, they should be translated into something else and make a quality out of such situations. Most often traps translate into problems, but the problem of problems should be looked at as potential. They are results of circumstances, and it’s up to the architect to use it all in favor of architecture. I’m not sure there are traps for architecture, and if they don’t exist for architecture they don’t exist for architects. There are opportunities and there is an individual relation to a certain situation, which brings us back to the issue of decision-making.

On Influences

Among a number of important authors, who have had a strong influence on me, I would mention Le Corbuiser and Jean Nouvel. And excellent architects are Lina Bo Bardi, Eileen Gray, Ivanka Raspopović, Kazuyo Sejima, Manuelle Gautrand.

Figure 5. Competition entry for the Nation Museum in Belgrade 

On Women in Architecture

To the question of what is the reason that the number of known female authors is not larger, there are two possible ways to answer: mythological and existential. I mean – the division of roles in architecture or in life. The architectural profession covers a wide field, and so I believe the architectural education to be wide and disperse. I am more interested in what is in the competence of the architectural profession and what could create an ambience in which “real” architecture could appear. The question of authorship in architecture, like in other professions or arts, is much more a question of authenticity.

Snežana Vesnić, architect, PhD candidate, works as a designer at Neoarhitekti and in construction with Terra Engineering. Her field of research covers the studies of the theory of form, intuition and supersymmetry, and her projects can be described as poetic brutalism od new modernity. She is the co-author of the building for Textil Užice and a laureate of a large number of awards and honors, such as the oldest architecture award in Serbia (by Novosti company), that she received in 2008.