Arhitektura i urbanizam

Impresum

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Content

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The Work of Architect Franja Urban in the area of Pomoravlje and Šumadija

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Franja Urban is one of the foreign architects who, after the First World War, decided to immigrate to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, thus achieving a very productive career. Although most of his buildings were completed in Belgrade, Urban managed to work in other cities and towns, thanks to his good relationship with investors. So far, it is known that Urban worked in Loznica, Jagodina, Ćuprija and Aranđelovac. Jagodina is the second city after Belgrade in terms of the number of Urban’s buildings, and the only city where one of them is listed as a historic landmark. Despite partially salvaged project documentation for some of Urban’s buildings in Jagodina, so far, they have not been the subject of a more detailed monographic study, and until recently, the houses he designed in Ćuprija and Aranđelovac were not known to domestic historiography. Therefore, this article presents a continuation of research into the life and work of architect Franja Urban, in order to more completely analyse this underresearched and little-known part of his opus.

GIS-bibliography as a new user experience in presenting architectural journals

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This paper highlights the possibilities of presenting and promoting journals in the field of architecture, urbanism and spatial planning, using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools. The idea is to visualize metadata from the journal’s bibliography, compiled within the Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services COBISS.SR, in a unique way using GIS tools and applying methods and procedures available in the GIS environment. GIS techniques are employed here to link specific data about journal articles (project locations, authorship, and illustrations) with spatial attributes, thereby enabling the georeferencing of articles and architectural projects. The resulting visual representations are primarily intended for a targeted readership: architects, urban planners, spatial planners, but also all other readers. Beyond serving interested users, this mode of presenting articles from serial publications is also valuable for librarians, as it offers a new conceptual model for organizing information about this type of library material.

Reconstruction of the chronology, authorial position, and design themes of architect Rastko Radulović in French design studios (1959–1964; 1972–1975)

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Serbian-French relations have so far been the subject of research by both domestic and international authors. Narrower and more specific thematic areas – such as Serbian-French architectural connections – still lack a comprehensive and systematic overview within architectural history and theory. The significance of researching these relations lies in identifying both the direct and indirect French influences on the Serbian architectural and cultural context, as well as on the development of Serbian architecture and the aesthetic refinement of the authorial expression of Serbian architects. This paper focuses on two professional engagements of architect Rastko Radulović (1933–2005) in France – the first in Gоuyon’s design studio (1959–1964) and the second in Delb’s design studio (1972–1975). The aim of the research is to reconstruct Radulović’s professional engagement in France, based on partially preserved project documentation and hand sketches, and to determine his authorial contribution to contemporary architecture. The research rests on the hypothesis that his relatively brief professional experiences in France had a formative impact on the development of new formal and spatial concepts within Radulović’s oeuvre. The methodology applied encompasses comparative analysis, deductive reasoning, and a critical review of both primary and secondary sources, with the aim of reconstructing, with precision, the chronology, authorial position, and design themes during his professional engagement in French design studios in the 1960s and 1970s. The findings indicate that Radulović, even within a short period, contributed to the opening of new design themes that corresponded with the contemporary tendencies and critiques of the dominant modernist discourse. The contribution of this research lies in its systematic reconstruction of the chronology, authorial position, and design themes of Radulović’s professional engagement in French design studios, while also pointing to further directions of inquiry that may contribute to a deeper contextualized understanding of Serbian-French architectural connections.

The legacy of Serbian architectural exports to countries in Africa: hotel architecture (1960–1999)

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In the corpus of Serbian architectural exports to African countries from the 1960s to the end of the 1990s, the completed and conceptual/competitive solutions for hotel architecture, the subject of this article, stand out. After liberation from colonial administrations in the 1950s and 1960s, there was enthusiasm and optimism in the independent African countries for the formation of modern societies, accompanied by the extensive construction of state administration buildings, various social institutions and housing. Design and construction companies from S.F.R. Yugoslavia played a significant role in this, with their construction experience in the decades after World War II and capacity to meet the various needs and requirements of clients. At the same time, new hotels were built, which were important firstly in the context of social change and the establishment of international cooperation, and then for the development of the tourist industry in African countries. From the 1970s, after the construction of facilities with primary state and social functions, the development of tourism also began to intensify, bringing new investments, transport infrastructure and improved service activities to developing African countries. The resorts, hotels, safari hotels and other forms of catering and tourist architecture that emerged in the 1980s as a result of the desire to develop mass tourism in certain African countries brought new opportunities to contemporary architecture on the African continent. Tourism also played an important role in the promotion of authentic cultural and geographical features, so that the architecture of hospitality and tourist facilities proved to be a good way of marketing certain concepts and spatial and design solutions that convey the impression of local specificities to foreign guests. Although most of the tourist architecture projects by Serbian authors were not implemented, their architectural concepts, design features and freer approaches, often inspired by the influences of postmodernism, point to more progressive trends in contemporary architecture in African countries.

Power and Urban Planning: Genesis and Critical Analysis of Theoretical Approaches

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Urban planning has traditionally been dominated by rationalist and technocratic paradigms, within which the question of political power has often been treated as peripheral. With the rise of critical social theories in the second half of the twentieth century, planning increasingly came to be understood as a politically embedded process, where relations of power play a central role in shaping space and public policy. However, under the contemporary neoliberal paradigm, the planning arena once again tends to be “depoliticized.” This paper critically examines how the concept of power has been articulated and transformed across three key theoretical frameworks: the rationalist–technocratic model, the communicative approach (grounded in Habermas’s conception of the public sphere), and the Foucauldian discourse perspective. The analysis engages with influential authors and concepts, including Harvey, Lefebvre, Healey, Forester, and Flyvbjerg, and seeks to identify paradigmatic shifts and the implications that differing understandings of power have produced in planning theory and practice. The paper highlights the need for an analytical framework capable of bridging the gap between normative theorizing and the empirical configurations of power that shape contemporary urban governance.

Residential-Commercial Building PĐ27

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The building is located in a part of the city that has been characterized by a process of intensive urbanization over the past decade, where a semi-urban environment with traditional family housing is evolving into a modern multi-family and combined residential and business environment. The building consists of three parts, which together form a unique functional and design entity with a recognizable architectural identity. The integration of new construction into the established structure of the suburban settlement was considered on several architectural levels. The architectural and urban design solution stems from the irregular shape of the plot and its position at the intersection. By adopting the concept of the so-called "interrupted row", the building is integrated into the existing urban matrix, with the different architectural morphology of the neighboring streets. This approach enabled the discontinuity of the frontage towards the street with single-family homes and the formation of a continuous frontage towards the street with multi-family and commercial buildings. The residential floor is designed as a corridor structure. All apartments are clearly zoned, with dining and living rooms united into a single space, and spacious open areas. The apartments on the top floor also have access to large private roof terraces with swimming pools, summer kitchens and green areas, thus functionally connecting to the surrounding amenities. The basic volume of the building is made up of a monolithic white mass with emphasized dark lines and randomly arranged balconies, which gives the entire composition a dose of dynamism. The dissected crown of the building reinterprets the rhythm of full and empty, taken from a row of family houses on the opposite side of the street. The building responds in an original way to some typical spatial, organizational and aesthetic challenges of contemporary housing construction and represents another of the author's striking multi-family housing buildings in the city.

Self-Sustainable Vacation House on Kosmaj

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The completed building is positioned near the very edge of the Kosmaj Region of Exceptional Features in the proximity of Belgrade, surrounded by a natural landscape characterized by forest areas, gentle slopes, and autochthonous vegetation, which highlights the need for a harmonious integration of the architectural design in order to minimize disruption of the environmental context. The site includes facilities intended for occasional stays, rest, and recreation for a family of five, with the main residential building being the subject of this paper. The traditional architecture of Šumadija served as inspiration for the contemporary interpretation of the timber-frame (bondruk) construction that was incorporated in the design of this two-story vacation house.

The paper is an analytical presentation of the building, providing detailed explanations of the design motifs, conceptual starting points, and criteria that shaped the architectural form and programmatic structure. The primary focus is on examining the structural solutions applied, as well as the materialization, and integrated technological systems, with a consideration of how these elements contribute to functionality, aesthetic expression, and sustainability. The aim of the paper is to offer insight into the design and construction of the house, highlighting the interrelation between the conceptual and technical decisions that define the final character of the architecture.

The fundamental premise of the design approach was shaped by the investor’s requirement for complete independence from the municipal supply systems, while maximizing sustainability, and maintaining a high level of comfort. In this sense, the building is self-sufficient primarily in terms of energy autonomy and the use of solar energy to meet its energy needs, as well as having its own water supply and wastewater management. However, reducing the concept to such an interpretation would significantly underestimate its scope. Therefore, the paper examines the notions of ecological and cultural sustainability, as well as their interpretations within architectural discourse, in order to establish a more precise interpretation.

University of Sarajevo - Faculty of Architecture 1949- 2024: 75 Years of Educating Architects in Bosnia and Herzegovina / Nermina Zagora (editor)

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Residential Architecture of Belgrade, Techniques, Ideas, Achievements / Ljiljana Đukanović

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