Archinect - Marija Brdarski Travel Blog

Podgorica, Montenegro_ Morača Sport and Recreation Center

2010-07-28T15:58:59-04:00

Podgorica, Montenegro_ Morača Sport and Recreation Center
Architect: Predrag Dmitrović
Date: 1979

The Morača Sport and Recreation Center, Morača referring to a nearby river , is composed of two major halls, one an indoor athletic stadium opening up towards a post-war neighborhood, while the other hall containing two public pools bows down to the river’s edge.

The two objects, formally different with some reference to Saarinen’s Hockey Ring, both rely on the structure of the roof to create grandiose interior spaces with a unique exterior presence. The objects align linearly and mingle under the canopy of a patio strengthening the dominant axis and providing a perpendicular axis from one side of the complex to the parking.

Unfortunately, the recreational facilities of the complex were short lived when an earthquake damaged the water facilities for the pools. The damage was too complicated to resolve and the pool remains off limits to this day.

View of complex from nearby br...

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Hercegovina_Museum of the Revolution

2010-07-23T15:42:29-04:00

Sarajevo, Bosnia & Hercegovina_Museum of the Revolution
Architects: Boris Magas and Edo Smidhen
Date: 1963

The ground and the sky materialize to form two large volumes; a plinth below and a large marble box above. The two sections are kept apart by a glazed wrapping moving in-between the volumes around their corners and continuing on away from the street.

The large cantilever of the museum’s top volume extends far enough to block most of the direct light from entering the middle zone. The ambiance of the interior vestibule and entrance gallery smoothly transition out towards the exterior courtyard. The main gallery space located in the top volume is lit by overhead sky lights - cameras were not allowed.

Museum alongside the street

Museum entrance away from street

Interior entrance gallery

Interior view of main staircase from top gallery

View of exterior garden near entrance

View from courtyard above towards exterior staircase

View from courtyard towards the street

Can...

Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina _ Department Store

2010-07-17T14:26:39-04:00

Mostar, Bosnia & Hercegovina _ Department Store
Architect: A. Paljaga
Date: 1970

On my way to Sarajevo, I decided to prolong my Dalmatian experience with stopovers in Dubrovnik and Mostar. Highlights of the cities include the well preserved 14th century Venetian Old Town and the 16th century ‘Stari Most’ (Old Bridge), respectively.

During my visit to Mostar - completely unplanned -I came across the remains of the Department store Razvitak (architect A. Paljaga, 1970).

The store was damaged in the recent war and now stands in pretty bad shape; although with most of the shell in place, it’s easy to see the resemblance to other department stores of the ex-YU regions - most notably the Department store in Osijek by Mihelić. Unlike the Osijek project, which uses aluminum panels to clad the exterior, this store is made up of unique concrete panels with intricate imagery molded into each panel. It’s unclear if the intention was to develope some sort of holistic thematic narrative ...

Split, Croatia _ Gripe Sport Stadium

2010-07-17T09:37:44-04:00

Split, Croatia _ Gripe Sport Stadium
Architect: Slavko Rozić and Živorad Janković
Date: 1979-80

To many the city of Split is known for its fragmented remains of what once was Diocletian’s Palace (approx. 300AD), so it was with little surprise that on a sunny Dalmatian day in July the city bustles with tourists. A few minutes walk northeast of the old city walls, in a fairly busy intersection surrounded by neighborhood dwellings, lies the large sport complex Gripe - built for the 1979 Mediterranean Games.

I approached the large winding staircase leading to the main building with intrigue. I’m not sure if I was first blinded by the blazing white plaster and tile or the excessive signage or it could just be the scale - but whatever it was, this complex felt a little alien and I liked it. It feels like a strange foreign object perched atop a hill with accordion type arms laid out on the sloping terrain forming strange figural staircases. There is an incredibly large amount of open...

Dalmatia, Croatia

2010-07-07T17:27:45-04:00

After Ljubljana I took an overnight bus back to Croatia, this time I headed down south towards the Dalmatian Coast. Although I have just one project to visit, I decided to mark this halfway point in my travels with a break to re-fuel. I am currently spending a couple of weeks exploring and enjoying the region.

View from my balcony towards the old town of Pirovac.

View of Pirovac.

Streets of Šibenik.

Some of the heads of the citizens of old Šibenik on the front of The Cathedral of St. Jakov, 1402-1555.

A small plaza infront of a church in Šibenik.

Ljubljana, Slovenia_ Plečnik and Ravinkar

2010-07-05T09:01:10-04:00

My trip to Ljubljana would not be complete without a visit to some of Jože Plečnik’s projects. Below are a few photographs of Plečnik’s Library and some additional projects by his student Edvard Ravinkar. One needs only to look at the façade to see the influence of Plečnik on Ravinkar.

Plečnik’s National and University Library, 1936-41.

Plečnik’s National and University Library, 1936-41.

Plečnik’s National and University Library, 1936-41.

Ravnikar's Ferantov Vrt. (housing) 1964-75.

Ravnikar's Ferantov Vrt. (housing) 1964-75.

Ravnikar's Ferantov Vrt. (housing) 1964-75.

Ravnikar's Petrol Station. 1968-69.

View of Ravnikar's Petrol Station in beyond from Mihelič's Station. 1968-69.

Ljubljana, Slovenia_ Clinical Centre

2010-07-05T08:33:25-04:00

Ljubljana, Slovenia_ Clinical Centre
Architect: Stanko Kirstl
Date: 1968-77

I had no idea that the cobblestone circle motif molded in the pavement or the long bands of pale orange concrete panels cladding the hospital were going to reoccur so many times. After a few hours of carefully observing the campus I come to a realization that Kristl’s Centre is the project that then later additions would model their design after. It’s amazing to see a new wing of the complex being raised with the exact same pale orange panel, the same long bands of floor to ceiling windows and the same terraced truncated ends, but almost 40 years after Kristl's original design was executed.

While one side of the block is made up of large cranes, temporary parking lots, dusty streets and all the activities that go along with a construction site, the opposite end houses Kristl’s design. A long concrete carpet moves from the street and pushes back to the main entrance. The procession leads past the openness...

Ljubljana, Slovenia_ Gas Station

2010-06-25T17:17:19-04:00

Ljubljana, Slovenia_ Gas Station
Architect: Milan Mihelič
Date: 1968

This little intervention was at one point an active gas station, but today just sits, tucked in the corner of a curved section of the street, surrounded by two much larger buildings. The ornate flowering of the column is hardly experienced from the street. You must come to the structure to witness the beautiful underbelly of the roof.

The red and white coats of paint illuminate the ceiling and reveal the subtle slippage of the canopy above the thin bar of functional space. Imagine being welcomed by this when you pulled into a gas station!

Today, in this context, the distressed details and the faded pallet of an aging city absorb the pavilion into a grim alcove of shaded parking. What do the cards have in store for a used petrol station?

View across the street towards the station.

Moving closer to the station from the adjacent building complex.

Underneath the canopy.

Detail of the column.

Detail of the co...

Maribor, Slovenia_ Social Housing Jemčev vrt

2010-06-25T17:11:42-04:00

Maribor, Slovenia_ Social Housing Jemčev vrt
Architect: Borut Pečenko
Date: 1972-75

After a few short hours, the slow rhythm of northern Croatia’s patchy landscape quickly crescendos into a field of mountains and valleys declaring the entrance into Slovenia. Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia and only fifteen minutes south of the Austrian border. The city is located in a small valley surrounded by beautiful vineyards and mountains. Pečenko’s takes advantage of the surroundings by citing the housing complex on a corner facing towards the distant town center and alongside the road to the vineyards. Announcing the presence of the neighborhood to the community buildings in its vicinity, the projects breaks down into a series of ascending and descending parts, with the highest building in the corner chamfering the sidewalk and providing a nice cove for a café.

While the corner both invites and protects the neighborhood beyond, the two arms extend out and stretch past the ...

Zagreb, Croatia_Workers Open University

2010-06-25T17:07:28-04:00

Zagreb, Croatia_Workers Open University,
Architects: Ninoslav Kučan and Radovan Nikšić
Date: 1961

It’s a shame how dreary buildings appear on a stormy afternoon, and how cumbersome the camera feels between cold fingers. A few minutes down the busy street from the Zagrepčanka, past the 1950s neighborhood and across the street from a contemporary glass catastrophe of a complex is the public university.

Walking closer to the entrance, a long skinny portico extends past the floating mass - yes, the building floats- to unwind and prolong the procession from the corner of the block to the front door. I walk around the complex attempting to miraculously capture “the shot”, however that building that I saw in a photograph, that building that I am attempting to capture is lost amongst the shrubs and the trees. What lies before me are small stills, fragments of weathered marble and stained steel revealing connections, openings and reflections of the surrounding neighborhood.

I walk in...

Zagreb, Croatia_ Zagrepčanka Business Complex

2010-06-20T17:12:36-04:00

Zagreb, Croatia_ Zagrepčanka Business Complex
Architect: Slavko Jelinek and Berislav Vinković
Date: 1976

About a 40 minute walk southwest of Trg Jelačića - Trg Jelačića is an area of Zagreb where the upper town approximately meets the lower town - is the business complex Zagrepčanka. The complex consists of one building, a series of smaller buildings on one side, parking and a large sculpture. As I began my walk around the complex I was immediately wisped back to my fist impressions of Sava Center. Both projects announce the main entrance with a small plaza consisting of benches and a circular water feature. And in that moment, just like Sava Center, the plaza of the Zagrepčanka remained still, empty and deserted.

As I made my way to the back of the complex I was amazed at the proximity of the tower to a neighborhood of large social housing bars. Zagrepčanka’s topographic difference between the main building and the street level must provide, or so I think, one solution for a ...

Zagreb, Croatia _Social/Housing Bank

2010-06-18T17:38:30-04:00

Zagreb, Croatia _Social/Housing Bank
Architect: Ivan Vitić
Date:

I came across this project as I was walking around the city. I just arrived from the train station and decided to familiarize myself with the streets. Although I was not in search of this particular project, the wooden shutters caught my eye. After a quick look on the net, I learned that it is a National Bank Residential Block designed by the Croatian architect Ivan Vitić.

View of housing looking up from the street.

Detail of windoww.

Novi Sad, Serbia_ Department Store

2010-06-18T17:16:29-04:00

Novi Sad, Serbia_ Department Store
Architect: Milan Mihelić
Date: 1968-72

Novi Sad ,the capital of the Vojvodina province of Serbia, is located about an hour north of Belgrade. The city itself is organized with an older more historic city centre, which I found to be very active with colorful neo-classical facades, pedestrian streets and outdoor cafes. Moving outwards from the centre, Novi Sad grows both in street and building scale, most likely caused by the influence of the automobile. Mihelić’s project is uniquely located at a point where the edge of the historic centre intersects with a major boulevard.

The proect's ground floor has access to a grocery store and a major department store, while the upper four floors house various commercial shops. It’s comparable to a mall. I was immediately struck by the robust relief of the façade. Not only does the building turn the corner from a line of Neo-Classical street facades, but it moves to become integrated with various modern...

Belgrade, Serbia _ 25 May Sport Center

2010-06-15T16:37:39-04:00

Belgrade, Serbia _ 25 May Sport Center
Architect: Ivan Antić
Date: 1971-74

I spent a little bit of time with this building. I will be back in Belgrade at the end of my travels, and hope to document the project a little more.

View of Sportcenter from pedestrian walkway.

Belgrade, Serbia _ Congress Center Sava

2010-06-15T16:25:25-04:00

Belgrade, Serbia _ Congress Center Sava
Architects: Stojan Maksimović, Aleksandar Saletić
Date: 1976-77

I made my way through New Belgrade’s many neighborhoods to find myself standing amongst taxi drivers , in the corner of the complex, amazed at the emptiness of the giant mega structure. For those of you not familiar with the project, the complex was designed to house and entertain guests coming to the area for various gatherings;meetings, confrences, performances, etc. It is made up of auditoriums and conferece rooms, a hotel and various small commercial shops providing various services for the complex. Anyway, I walked around the complex for a while taking in the various urban gestures. What appeared to be a street belonging to the city quickly became a raised entry platform for one wing of the building. Although the gestures appear very intentional, during my visit they were very inactive, with only one side branching out and stimulating pedestrian traffic from the freew...

Belgrade, Serbia_ Museum of Contemporary Art

2010-06-14T18:11:03-04:00

Belgrade, Serbia_ Museum of Contemporary Art
Architects: Ivan Antić and Ivanka Raspopović
Date: 1961-1963

The museum is located in the park region of Ušće on the edge of New Belgrade. Although the museum is currently undergoing a renovation, I was able to see some of the larger sculptures in the park surrounding the main building. The proximity of the museum to a very active pedestrian river walk opens up part of the park to the Sava River towards Belgrades’ Kalemegdan Citadel - a fortress turned park, it is one of the oldest and , in my opinion, most beautiful parts of Belgrade. The structure is the only permanent built work in the park area and can be seen mingling with the tree canopies from Kalemegdan‘s many look out points.

View Across Sava River from Kalemegdan towards the Museum of Contemporary Art

Close up of the Museum from across the river

Museum of Contemporary Art

Museum of Contemporary Art

Brief Intro

2010-06-14T16:09:59-04:00

The following blog is a glimpse of my travels throughout the ex-Yugoslav Republics. The documentation is part of a larger research agenda driven to uncover and examine the idiosyncrasies of the architecture that grew out of social modernism in Yugoslavia in the 60s and 70s. In the following months I will visit Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro and Macedonia to investigate the ways in which the architecture is informed by the historical, social and built domain of the preceding decades in Yugoslavia-i.e the relationship between the historic, ‘regional’ city core, the post-war ‘Yugoslavian’ new town, and increasingly ‘iconic’ projects inserted amongst old and new.