November 9, 2009

Vidikovac - Belgrade's lookout


Vidikovac is a district of Belgrade and is located on the top of the hill of the same name in the Rakovica municipality, on the border of the municipality of Čukarica, along the road of Ibarska magistrala (the road that leads southwest leaving Belgrade).


Link
I like Vidikovac for three reasons: the panorama view that gives a general impression of the whole Belgrade area , some interesting skyscrapers with funny details on the facades in the center of Vidikovac and visiting my dear friends, the Nedic family, where I was really warmly welcome and had some of the best food EVER! ( I shared one of Jelena Nedic’s wonderful recipes on Balkan-Crew, my other blog, here.)

Vidikovac as a settling was mainly build in the 70's and it was projected as a series of skyscrapers (up to 19 floors) constructed in a small concentric circles within larger circles represented by circular streets.


Vidikovac means „lookout“ or „observation point“ in Serbian.



this picture from Vidikovac website

I like the brick facades, the cut out angle-balcons and the round windows, this high rise buildings still look in good shape even after 30 years.


It's not uncommon to see extensions of the buildings by just adding a few floors more to the building. It's a way to densify the area with a minimal effort but with not negligible problems for the static of the buildings.


Panorama view from a highrise building


Urban planning was done nicely in Vidikovac, but sometimes there is someone with enough money to say: "my Villa will be like I want it, and what's more interesting to build a little house where big ones are planned?"


More examples for "wild" extensions


Nobody takes then care to plaster the facades, once the scaffolding are taken away, chances are that the unfinished wall will stay like that.

Walking around a building site: Vidikovac still has potential to be extended



The community counts around 18'000 inhabitants, there are a lot of commercial buildings and also churches.

6 comments:

  1. isn't it a little bit dangerous modify building (after they've been designed) in such way?
    Interesting place.

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  2. Well, I'm sure it's dangerous,just until now nothing happened.

    This was also a big theme in the "Balkanology exhibition" one year ago in Basel. Here the download:
    http://sajkaca32.googlepages.com/BAUNETZWOCHE_97_2008Balkanology.pdf

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  3. :o))) you took a photo of my building within panoramic view. :o) You should see the view from my building, it's amazing. I would post (these days) set of photographs taken from my living room window. Vidikovac belongs to Rakovica municipality.

    Riccardo, mostly it is not dangerous, but the main problem is that you never know if they (authorities) did all necessary measuring and analysis, or not... In some cases buildings crack, just because someone received bribery to turn the blind eye...

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  4. merkat, which is your building?
    I took my pictures from my friends apartment, it's just in the 7th floor, but the view is already amazing.
    Yes post some pictures and I'll link them!
    Vidikovac is cool!

    Back to Riccardo's question: there are even "worse" extensions, buildings that look like mushrooms, so big is the new "head"...and I think you really have to bribe the engineer and the authorities that they let you do that!

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  5. Great pictures!
    Thank you.

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  6. ah ah ah
    Thank ou merkat and sajkaca... it sound so "familiar" with many houses I saw in southern Italy!
    ah ah ah

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