Setting the Distance: Theoretical Practice of Milan Zlokovic and its Material Corollaries

In architectural practice of Milan Zloković there exists a curious division between his prewar orientation towards building and his postwar emphasis on theoretical research. However, the distinction between these two fields of his work is not that simple and unequivocal. The particular aim of this paper is to explore this vague relationship in Zloković’s postwar practice by focusing on his late project of the Tourist Settlement in Ulcinj and the previous preparatory work at the Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning in Belgrade. The analysis reveals Zloković’s precise understanding of concrete problems of contemporariness and exposes his position in the specific context of Yugoslav modernism as truly autonomous yet deeply engaged

Osnovni principi arhitekture Nikole Dobrovića

Over fifty years since the death of architect Nikola Dobrović (1897­1967), his rich architectural practice has prompted a number of serious historical and scientific researches. In one of the first detailed studies, in an article entitled 'Nikola Dobrović or On the Increase With Time', nine key principles of Dobrović's architecture have been distinguished in a summary of previous studies. This paper is conceived as an imaginary dialogue with the author of the study, Ranko Radović (1935­2005), who was also an excellent architect and urbanist, professor and theoretician of contemporary architecture, as well as Dobrović's student and collaborator. Considering results of more recent researches, this work seeks to document and critically observe Radović's early insights and interpretations. Also, it aims to acknowledge, once again, yet from a new historical perspective, the value of Dobrović's 'messages and news, words and ideas, drawings and buildings, 'proper' space that is always part of the world' - as Radović has precisely pointed out.U periodu od pedeset godina, koliko je prošlo od smrti arhitekte Nikole Dobrovića (1897-1967), o njegovom bogatom projektantskom opusu preduzeto je niz ozbiljnih istoriografskih i naučnih istraživanja. U jednoj od prvih detaljnih studija, u članku pod naslovom 'Nikola Dobrović ili o povećanju s vremenom', kao rezime prethodnih analiza navedeno je devet ključnih principa Dobrovićeve arhitekture. Ovaj rad je koncipiran kao imaginarni dijalog sa autorom predmetne studije, Rankom Radovićem (1935­2005), Dobrovićevim studentom i saradnikom, takođe vrsnim arhitektom i urbanistom, profesorom i teoretičarem savremene arhitekture. Imajući u vidu rezultate novijih istraživanja, rad nastoji da dokumentuje i kritički preispita njegove rane uvide i tumačenja, i ponovo, iz savremene istorijske perspektive, ukaže na vrednost koju imaju, kako navodi Radović, Dobrovićeve 'poruke i vesti, reči i ideje, crteži i građevine, 'valjani' prostor koji je uvek i deo sveta'

Архитектонска критичка пракса : теоријски модели

Тема овог истраживања је методолошки концепт архитектонске критичке праксе, његова теоријска поставка и истраживање кроз студију критичког дискурса модерне архитектуре у југословенском културном простору. Његов основни циљ је да се модерна архитектура у Југославији сагледа у теоријском контексту критичког мишљења и да се одреде и научно објасне њене карактеристике и посебности. У ширем смислу, циљ овог рада је стицање научних сазанања о могућностима и принципима успостављања критичког дискурса у савременој архитектонској теорији и пракси. У првом делу истраживања постављен је теоријски оквир рада, анализирани су референтни концепти архитектонске теорије и критичке теорије, и проблем истраживања је ситуиран у просторно-временском контексту. Други део дисертације је конципиран као историјско-интерпретативно истраживање које се састоји из четири студије случаја у којима се претходно постављене тезе испитују у конкретним историјским условима и, на основу резултата истраживања, конструишу теоријски модели архитектонске критичке праксе. Теоријски оквир је постављен кроз испитивање и систематизацију кључних појмова: критика, критичка теорија, критичка архитектура, пракса, теоријска пракса и архитектонска критичка пракса. Хипотезе постављене у појмовнику се даље проверавају кроз критичку анализу референтних текстова из области архитектонске теорије, естетике, филозофије и друштвене теорије, међу којима се, као главна теоријска упоришта издвајају радови Манфреда Тафурија (Manfredo Tafuri) и Теодора Адорна (Theodor Adorno)

Vizionarstvo i intelektualni otpor arhitekte Nikole Dobrovića: period Drugog svetskog rata

ВИЗИОНАРСТВО И ИНТЕЛЕКТУАЛНИ ОТПОР АРХИТЕКТЕ НИКОЛЕ ДОБРОВИЋА: ПЕРИОД ДРУГОГ СВЕТСКОГ РАТА У периодизацији сложене професионалне праксе Николе Добровића, пери- од Другог светског рата најчешће остаје на маргинама уобичајене трипартит- не поделе, као пауза између јасно детерминисаних структуралних целина, дубровачког и београдског раздобља. Заснована на студијама културног кон- текста и детаљним увидима у личну преписку архитекте, новија истрживања расветљавају Добровићеве ратне године као време тешког живота у оскуди- ци и време интензивне посвећености физичком и умном раду (Благојевић у Иванишин, Thaler, Благојевић, 2015). Сам Добровић у позним годинама беле- жи да је то време студирања „свега што би у недостатку књига доспело под руке“ (Крунић, Перовић, ур., 1998: 316). Циљ овог рада је да се додатно ра- светле, контекстуализују и објасне поједине Добровићеве идеје и концепци- је настале у овим екстремним историјским околностима. У средишту пажње су пројекти настали непосредно уочи Другог светског рата и писани радови који су по завршетку рата имали битан утицај на формирање Добровићевих ауторских позиција. У ширем смислу, рад се бави инструментима критичког мишљења и деловања у време када су услови за критичку стручну праксу радикално сужени или у потпуности укинути. Употребом метода упоредне анализе и критичке анализе садржаја, испитаће се и проблематизовати са савремене тачке гледишта две комплементарне технике Добровићеве дру- штвене и уметничке критике: перманентни интелектуални отпор, с једне, и визионарско промишљање будућег друштва, са друге стране

Historical Enquiry as a Critical Method in Urban Riverscape Revisions: The Case of Belgrade's Confluence

This article aims to underline the necessity of including historical enquiry in reaching the complex goals of sustainable development of urban riverscapes. Its proposed method is a survey conducted through selection, interpretation and systematization of the relevant historical data that consider the Belgrade cityscape, and specifically, the New Belgrade public spaces at the river confluence. The theoretical framework, which relies on the concepts of 'landscape urbanism' and 'critical practice of landscape architecture', has affected the selection and interpretation of dense historical layers of modernization, formed in diverse socio-economic and political conditions. We have distinguished five historical strata that contribute significantly to comprehension of the present state. By looking at the traces of the formative period of Belgrade urban landscape, the moments of New Belgrade's inception, inerasable impacts of war, vigorous post WWII socialist transformation and, finally, the series of Danube riverscape revisions, we intend to depict the complexity of the modern city legacy and thus stress the interconnectedness of past and future endeavours. As a counterpoint to globalizing tendencies in re-designing city riverfronts, this work is conceived as a lateral contribution to a broader investigation that informs, supports and constitutes more ecologically viable practices

Belgrade Riverscape Revisions and Lost Perspectives of Modernisation

On the 24 of January 2017, the new strategy of the re-design of the urban park Ušće (the Confluence), that belongs to the central green zone of Belgrade was presented to the city government. The future landscape project for this space will be authored by the prominent and global urban design firm Gehl Architects. Before the project becomes available to the public, we investigate the intrinsic qualities and values of the existing space in perspective of the Belgrade urban modernisation. During the nineteenth century, Belgrade was a city on a water border-line between the Ottoman Empire, respectively the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia and the Habsburg Monarchy. There was a radical transformation of the city’s urban landscape during this period and the process was driven for the most part by the paradigm of the modern European city. The protagonists of the transformation, the bearers of political and economic power, were following the patterns of a capitalist development of the state. After the end of the World War One, Belgrade was the most densely populated city and the city with the greatest mechanical inflow of population in the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1918–1929), in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–41), as well as after World War Two in the Socialist Yugoslavia. The construction of New Belgrade on the right bank of the Danube River, at the deserted space between Belgrade and Zemun (which until 1918 was part of Austria-Hungary) progressed according to the initial concept by the prominent Yugoslav town planner and architect Nikola Dobrović, 1946–48. In all these periods of urban landscape transformation, the main buzzword that has justified the different kind of spatial interventions was expressed by the saying: Belgrade must descents to its rivers. In this context we compare contemporary visions of the Danube riverfront of New Belgrade with the insightful concept from the very beginning of the twentieth century for the Danube suburban neighbourhood in the old Belgrade that reveals the valuable clues of the lost layers in the perpetual metamorphosis of an urban riverscape

Beogradski pasaži XX veka - analiza tipa i kritičko ispitivanje prostornog potencijala

As noted by Walter Benjamin, the spatial phenomenon of a covered glass-roofed passage, stretched between two streets and inserted inside a city block, encapsulated the extreme cultural ambivalence: by expressing repression through the ideology of consumerism and expressing freedom through the utopia of abundance. The hidden emancipatory potentials of the city passages, observed closely in a particular case, represent the subject of this paper and the analytical probe that examines the historical conditions of a particular enterprise. When the Passage of Nikola Spasić was constructed in the main pedestrian and shopping street of Belgrade in 1912, the époque of Parisian­style arcades had already passed. Observed in this broader perspective, the construction of the Passage, according to the project of Nikola Nestorović, one of the most prominent Serbian architects of the period, was only a late echo of the Parisian 18th century invention. The comparison and contention between the three chosen, realized and unrealized, transpositions of the Passage in Belgrade, designed by different prime architects of the time, in relation to Benjamin's idea of space with emancipative potential, correspondingly point out the protean capacity and open up new alternatives in the context of contemporary production of space, particularly important in the light of a changing global culture.Kao polazna osnova istraživanja, u ovom radu, postavljen je prostorni fenomen XIX veka - pasaž (passagen, nem.) - odnosno, natkriveni (zaštićeni) prolaz između dve ulice, umetnut u gradski blok, koji je, prema opservacijama Valtera Benjamina (Walter Benjamin), predstavljao jedan od suštinskih izraza modernosti u vremenu svog nastanka. Upoređivanjem i ispitivanjem prolaza/pasaža u urbanoj istoriji Beograda tokom XX veka, rad analizira transpoziciju ovog tipa u kontekstu proizvodnje prostora u različitim društvenim okvirima, i problematizuje je kroz aktuelna pitanja savremene devastacije i redukcije javnog domena i javne sfere na globalnom nivou. Ovim radom nastavljaju se i produbljuju prethodno započeta naučna ispitivanja autorki, kroz novu predmetnu građu, problemske okvire i istraživačka pitanja proverena u redefinisanoj kritičkoj perspektivi, koja se bave emancipatorskim potencijalom prostora posebnih tipologija, izvan uobičajenih definicija i interpretacija

Re-thinking city space in the context of nineteenth century Belgrade

The split into “nature” and “culture” has lasted for centuries in Western civilization and remains the framework through which we consider various important problems of contemporary society. In the last decades of the twentieth century there has been a clear reaction to this dichotomy, first in a geography discourse then elsewhere, and a move towards studying the construction and representation of nature in cultural history. A very important feature in the approach to design for recovering contemporary urban landscape is urban greenery regeneration as well as the study of the urban greenery past. The broader historical context of our study is the establishment of new capitalist relations towards urban territory in nineteenth century Belgrade, and with it a new distribution of political and economic power. This process led to the disappearance of the main green spaces in the city and the suppression of the memory they carried. The reconstruction of Belgrade’s historic core was implemented according to Emilijan Josimović’s urban plan (1867). Nevertheless, it contained some very important indications of ecological thinking. In order to elaborate a refined approach to environmental and cultural problems that Belgrade, like other cities, faces today, we bring to light and critically examine those features and aspects of Josimović’s plan that established organic relations and balance between nature, culture, city memory and city development

Nitrate removal from water by ion exchange

High concentrations of nitrate in water, both in surface and in groundwater, is a consequence of geological composition of soil or human activity. Increased concentrations of nitrate in drinking water is a serious hazard to human health, causing abnormalities such as cancerous growth in human digestion system, while excessive nitrate intake via drinking water can cause methemoglobinemia in infants. Furthermore, the presence of nitrate in aquifers can stimulate eutrophication, which compromise the growth of algae and depletion of dissolved oxygen. Natural and chemical fertilizers in crop production, detergent manufacturing, uncontrolled land discharge of municipal wastewater, and industrial wastes have been identified as the main sources of nitrate in water sources. Nitrate is a stable, highly soluble ion that is difficult to remove by conventional water treatment methods such as coagulation and flocculation. The ion exchange is the most widely used procedure for removing nitrate from water. In this research the possibility of removing nitrate from water was examined by using commercial ion exchangers: Duolite A7 and Relite A490, respectively. The influence of the initial concentration of nitrate (10, 50 and 100 mg/l), the contact time (15 - 1440 min) and the mass of the ion exchanger (0.1 to 0.6 g) was also examined