Compatibility, adaptability and use of different types of ground floor houses in 19th century town planning: Case study Subotica

A lack of knowledge of the history of architecture and town planning in the 19th century resulted in underrated regard towards this historic period and consequently in a devastation of urban and architectural heritage of the 19th century. This research was intended to clarify some segments of the history of architecture and town planning in the 19th century based on the example of Subotica. Research has shown that the basic types of ground floor houses built during the 19th century in Subotica were mutually compatible and that by a simple addition of rooms on the simple base house, more complex base houses could be built. In the same way rural houses could also be transformed into urban ones. This pattern allowed for utmost rationality of the construction of individual houses as well as of the whole town. The town, due to the application of compatible house plans, reflected a semblance of order which improved year on year, because every house at any given moment represented a finished structure. Simple attachment of building parts also allowed the houses that were located in the middle of the lot to be elongated to the street regulation line. Compatible house plans, as an auxiliary means, facilitated the application of building rules, the realization of regulation plans and provided continuous development of the town of Subotica in the period of over 150 years

The Vaults of the Subotica Synagogue after 114 Years: Condition Assessment and Repair Recommendations

This paper presents an original contribution with assessment of the current state in exploitation safety and usability of thin concrete domes of the beauteous Subotica Synagogue, built in 1902. The authors are analyzing the condition of the materials used in the Subotica Synagogue, on extracted samples of concrete and steel reinforcement with a binder which was used instead of cement, a gypsum - CaSO4×0,5H2O. The source of the problem, according to the author, is the lack of lime - Ca(OH)2 from the mixture of gypsum and pozzolanic aggregates made of baked clay. This is the main reason for poor concrete strength of only 7.6 MPa and the present significant corrosion processes in the steel reinforcement of that concrete, which far from the recommended values of pH ≥ 12, have a measured value of only pH = 7.55. These results advise a need for repair of the part of the building that has not been analyzed or investigated yet, partially due to difficult access and also apparently good condition, since cracks, larger deformation or collapse have not appeared yet. The condensation on the domes is damaging the painted decorations with gilding which is falling and reduces the exploitation safety and the mood of the visitors and believers, who came to the synagogue. The authors are proposing a method for rehabilitation of the vaults and ribs of the beautiful Subotica Synagogue domes by simultaneously satisfying the exploitation safety and avoiding the occurrence of condensation and damaging of the painted and gilded ceilings. We believe that the article will inspire and have a positive effect in the professional and scientific society so in other synagogues in Europe and around the world the exploitation usability of vaults will be inspected and if necessary, possible repairs can be made in the same or any similar way as proposed in this scientific work

Traditional Thick Concrete Floor Slabs – an Obstacle to the Flexibility, Energy Efficiency and Seismic Safety

This paper considers the potential of designing and constructing floor slabs taking into account three aspects of major importance: flexibility-adaptability, energy efficiency and seismic safety. Currently traditional reinforced concrete floor slabs at least 20 centimetres thick are still designed and built. Such practice has no justification, as thick concrete floor slabs hinder architectural creativity as well as all the other aforementioned aspects. In this paper, the authors analyse and demonstrate the simultaneous correlation between flexibility-adaptability, energy efficiency, seismic safety and the mass of the floor slabs in residential buildings. Massive floor slabs limit the distance between load-bearing walls and consequently the adaptability of residential space. A large mass directly intensifies the seismic forces it induces. Thick concrete slabs have high heat capacity, as they have high mass and volume. The solution to floor slabs which satisfy all three aspects is to design and build them as waffle slabs. These two-way spanning concrete slabs have low mass, are rigid and can span the distance of more than 10 metres between two load-bearing walls.The authors of this paper suggest that floor slabs conform to the limitation in mass provided in this paper under Eq. (5) and (6). By applying this principle, architects would be able to design more flexible, adaptable, energy efficient, and seismically safe living spaces

Heritage between socialism, transition and capitalism

This paper presents a case study of three specific buildings which will serve as examples of the relation to the building heritage in different historical periods and the way in which this relationship has influenced buildings'' state. Buildings included in this case study are Spitzer villa in Beočin, Fernbach castle in Aleksa Šantić and Synagogue in Subotica. All three buildings were built at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century in Art Nouveau style and are valuable examples of architectural heritage in Serbia with present status as cultural monuments. During the changes of socio-political systems on the territory of Vojvodina in the 20th century, all three buildings were subject to the same laws, but the ownership relations were different and the attitude of local community was different towards the cultural heritage

Reliability, condition diagnostics and reconstruction of the extremely damaged building

Članak prikazuje metodologiju dijagnostike stanja i rekonstrukcije ekstremno oštećenih konstrukcija koju razvijaju i unapređuju stručnjaci Građevinskog fakulteta Subotica, Univerziteta u Novom Sadu. Metodologija je prikazana na primjeru "Velike terase", centralnog objekta na Paliću izgrađenom od 1909. do 1912. Pouzdanost objekta je zbog lošeg održavanja opadala, oštećenja su propagirala pa je 1996. zbog mogućeg urušavanja njegova uporaba zabranjena. Početkom 2006. nadležno ministarstvo i grad Subotica iniciraju rekonstrukciju objekta. Projekte rekonstrukcije povjeravaju stručnjacima Građevinskog fakulteta Subotica. Početkom 2006. izvršena je dijagnostika stanja objekta "Velika terasa" s prijedlogom intervencija. Početkom 2007. završeni su projekti, a u razdoblju 2007. ÷ 2012. izvršena je rekonstrukcija objekta koji je svečano otvoren 1. 9. 2012., 100 godina nakon izgradnje.The paper presents condition diagnostics and reconstruction methodology of extremely damaged structures that is developed and improved by experts from the Faculty of Civil Engineering Subotica, University of Novi Sad. The methodology is presented through a case study example of the "Grand Terrace" - central building on the Lake Palić, built from 1909 to 1912. Its reliability decreased due to poor maintenance, damages propagated until structural collapse became imminent and in 1996 it was officially unusable. In early 2006, the Ministry and the city of Subotica initiated its reconstruction. Reconstruction plans were entrusted to experts from the Faculty. Condition diagnostics and proposal for interventions on the "Grand Terrace" were conducted during the first half of 2006. In early 2007 technical design was completed, reconstruction works were carried out from 2007 to 2012 and on September 1st, 2012, one hundred years after construction, an official opening of reconstructed building was held

Development of concept of inner city of the town Subotica in 19th and 20th century

Planned and regulated development of town Subotica, which was earlier spontanouosly settled, started in 1779 when market town then called Szent Maria acquired status of a free royal town Maria Theresiopolis. In bylaws of Maria Theresiopolis, document which contained orders considering development, management and planning of a town, some of the paragraphs were for a first time introduced determining future urban arrangement of a town. In these bylaws were defined separation of inner city from it's perrifery, building of bulwarks around inner city and surrounding the whole settlement by trenches. During time the concept of 'inner city'' changed, getting new meaning when royal commissar Skultety Ferenc was in charge in town Subotica. After his initiative Commission for the town arrangement was established. This Commission brought up The Plan for External Arrangement of a Town according to Skultety's instructions. In this Plan town was divided to 'inner city' and five suburbs. Inner city borders were defined by six main streets. It was aloud to built only a representative civic houses, with longer facades oriented toward the street, made from firm building materials in the inner city, while in suburbs it was possible to built also a village houses with gables oriented toward the streets, from less quality building materials. In this way differentiation of town areas were introduced: between representative town center or town and village in less representative periphery. This concept was later on developed and got it's full form in Building rules book from 1882 and Regulation plan made by Konyves Toth Mihaly in 1884. Subotica was built and developed according to this concept until passing the new Building rule book of town Subotica in 1938 in Kingdom Yugoslavia. Concept of 'inner city' is even recognizable today in the urban structure of Subotica and it can be very much seen inside the borders of protected cultural-historical zone of city core of Subotica

Austro-Hungarian Bank building in Subotica

During the negotiations between Austria and Hungary in 1867 when dual Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was formed, the question of the central bank was not touched to prevent further complications. In 1878, after years of prolonged negotiations, the central bank was successfully transformed into an institute in which Austria and Hungary had an equal share. The 'Austro- Hungarian Bank' acted as a central bank for both parts of the Empire. The dualistic character of the institute was characterized by two managements and two head offices in Vienna and Budapest. During first decade of 20th century it was built few dozens of bank buildings in Hungary and the most important: the central Austro-Hungarian Bank building in Budapest on Szabadsbg tjr 8. Bank building in Budapest was built according to the design made by Ignbc Alpbr who won the competition. Most of the other bank buildings built throughout Hungary were designed by architect Juzsef Hubert, but Austro-Hungarian bank building in Subotica was designed by architect Ferenc Juzsef Raichl in 1901. Main topic of this paper is research of architecture of Austro-Hungarian Bank Building in Subotica. It is obvious, although smaller in size, that the building was designed according to the main concept of the central bank building in Budapest. Compositions of the both facade applied similar architectural elements, like pillars, projections, attics, plinth and also decorative elements that symbolizes the function of a building. Inner organization of space also corresponds to each other, in both buildings: beside offices there were several apartments for renting. In contrast to other bank buildings in Hungary designed by Juzsef Hubert, bank building in Subotica, although made according to the concept of Central Bank building in Budapest represents remarkable and unique architectural masterpiece including all: architectural composition, decorative elements and function of a building

CHANCE FOR REVIVAL – SYNAGOGUE IN SUBOTICA

Research presented in this paper considers the problem of the Synagogue restoration in Subotica, builtin 1902, which has been deprived of its basic function, left without financial means for maintenancedue to the changes in the social, economic system and great changes in the population structure duringthe First and Second World War. Lack of financial resources, poor interest for the building and Balkanwars in nineties caused that the restoration works on the synagogue were performed partially, whereoften several construction seasons had to elapse before the next works were undertaken. This resultedalso in decay of those parts of building that have already been restored or conserved earlier. Today itseems that there is a solution to complete the restoration and revitalization works of a synagogue,building that was four times on the World Monuments Watch list and in 2014 listed among”7 MostEndangered monuments” by Europa Nostra programme. The primary objective of this paper is tohighlight the importance of a continuous process of maintenance and conservation to preserve buildingheritage, which has to actively involve all levels from government to the citizens and their initiatives