Serbia's Pavilions at World Exhibition 1900 in Paris

World Exhibitions have always been a great opportunity for a nation to get international exposure. Also for Serbia, the pavillons were a character of national presentation on the international stage, where the changing of paradigms were represented in the architecture of the pavillons.

Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle International

Serbia got a prominent location direct at the Seine river near the Pont de l'Alma and presented itself with a church-like pavillon in full Serbo-byzantine style (it almost looks like St. Mark's Church in Belgrade). It was a collection of national myths, a display of pre-ottoman grandeur, a journey in the past. It looked like a medieval serbian-orthodox monastery idealizing the image of the past.

But what was the reason for Belgrade architect Milan Kapetanovic (in collaboration with the ministry of construction architect Milorad Ruvidic), who never used that style in his architecture and would never has used it before, to produce such a project?

Interior of the Pavilion

Train-wagons full of domestic goods from Serbia 
were brought to Paris to be displayed in the pavillon

In that time Serbia was a monarchy, from 1815 to 1903 Serbia was ruled by the House of Obrenovic (except from 1842-58 when it was under the House of Karadjordevic) and Istanbul had finally recognized this monarchy (after ottoman had occupied the territory for a long time). In 1882 Serbia was raised to kingdom (under Milan Obrenovic) and was accepted from all the important powers of Europe. After ottoman occupation and finally a independent kingdom, it's not surprising, Serbia wanted to celebrate its roots a present a pavillon in the most typical Serbian style. 

Here some links on serbian-national style in architecture:

Former main telephone exchange in Belgrade

PTT Museum by Momir Korunovic in Belgrade

Share: del.icio.usdiggredditTechnoratiYahoo My Web

Yugoslav Pavillon at Expo 58 in Brussels

Another interestign world-expo building from Yugoslavia was the crisp modern Pavillon of the  Expo’58 in Brussels. 

Vjenceslav Richter, an architect from Zagreb made the design (his cooperator Pavel Weber made the interiors) and the daring structure was planned by structure engineer Zvonko Springer.
(Credit for top photo:http://www.flickr.com/photos/electrospark/4383289769/)

  The model photos from the competition prospectus DIKSI 2 

by Vjenceslav Richer and Pavel Weber 

for the Yugoslav Pavilion on Brussels World Fair 1958.

Richter’s first intriguing idea was a 32m x 40m rectangular space attached to wire-cables to a center collumn. A daring project that asked for an extremly capable and creative structure engineer. 

By end of February 1957 Springer completed the preliminary structural design that included a rough calculation of quantities for the building materials for the pavilion. The static system was aproved by the commission, but the 4 cables that would hold the entire pavilion caused some concernes. Wind loads presented some headache to the commission and so the proposed structure of the model was turned down. It was suggested to support the pavilion in a more traditional way such as on an adequate number of steel columns.

The new design request did not present any major problem as the columns had to be placed more or less at the same position like the one of original hanging rods. It was agreed to rearrange the décor panels to enable hiding the vertical truss stiffener between two adjacent panels. These stiffeners provided the horizontal stability to the pavilion when subjected to horizontal loads.

That was the reason, why the pavilion in the end didn’t looked quiet like on the model!

A little before the exhibition opening Richter designed also a spezial column to be placed in front of the Yugoslav Pavillion, he wished it to be a sensation on the EXPO. It looked like three umbrella’s spoke bent making a bow each strung and fixed on a tendon of thin wire. Each bow was positioned at an angle of 120 degrees to each other and the ends were fixed to the sinew at the third of its length. This “form” was divided in a structure of 6 bows (one each for Yugoslavia’s republics) of a length of 7,5m each.

  At left the lifting hook holds the temporary assembled column 

and a worker checks column’s bearing joint 

on the “pear” support being the lowest structure’s element

The column being assembled on the floor

 

Springer solved also this daring static problem, with tiny bars holding the sinew at fixation point to the inner two bow’s pipes and painted these bars black so that would make them almost invisible once the “column” is erected in front of the pavilion.  

 

The Yugoslav pavilion at EXPO 1958 World Fair was renowned for its futuristic design.

Now this building is the best conserved of most EXPO buildings. It got a second life after the world exhibition closed, when it was dismounted, transported and reassambled to become a school building in Saint Paulus College at Wevelgem, Belgium.

More about the 58' Expo here 

Pictures from Zvonko Springer (structure engineer of the project)

 http://www.cosy.sbg.ac.at/~zzspri/stories_from_professional_life/1958_EXPO-Yugoslav.htm

and from  Monograph of Vjenceslav Richter, Editor Vera Horvat-Pintarić; Printed and Copyright by GRAFIČKI ZAVOD HRVATSKE, Zagreb 1970.

Here an interesting file to download!

Yugoslav Pavillon at Expo 67

 

Photo credit: © Bill Dutfield

In my last post I showed the Serbian Pavillon for the Expo in Shanghai 2010.World Exhibitions are always a good occasion to show off the best side of the country and the aspect of architecture representing a "nation" becomes very important and makes the choice very difficult. Serbia (who earlier participated under Yugoslavia) had always attractive well done Pavillons and always on the more modern edge of the other entries.

A very interesting one, is the Pavillon featured on the Expo 67 in Montreal. The Expo was already very forward, just think of the USA Pavillon designed by Buckminster Fuller or the Habitat 67 housing complex designed by architect Moshe Safdie.  So it was a challenge for Yugoslavia to be represented as a modern country. To compare: The Scandinavian Pavillon  , the Swiss Pavillon or the the Belgian Paviillon look kind of boring in compaire!

Photo credit: © National Archives of Canada

Here the description of the Pavillon from the Expo 67 site:
The Yugoslav Pavilion on Ile Notre-Dame close to the Expo-Express station presents Yugoslavs working for a democratic, prosperous society.

It endeavors to portray how, in the story of Man and his World (that was the main theme of the Expo), Yugoslavia has adopted the special role of a bridge among all countries of the world.

It relates a long and colorful history and ancient culture to the dynamic forward impetus of today.

There is music to match mood, and art displays including priceless national treasures and contemporary work. A section devoted to industry treats production not as an end but as a means for a free and democratic life.

The close ties that link Canada and the United States to Yugoslavia are remembered, a comradeship that spans two World Wars and years of peace.

The pavilion's theater shows feature films from Yugoslavia, documentaries and cartoons, live concerts and folklore programs by Yugoslav artists.

Yugoslav export goods are on display, and experts are ready to discuss business opportunities. Literature describing Yugoslavia is available.

Culture, the country's role in international affairs, economy and tourism, social system and government are principal theme subjects.

 Photo credit: © Commissioned by the Federal Corporation 
for Expo 67 and published by the Banque Nataionale de Paris.  

The Yugoslavian Pavilion is now located on the Marine Drive in Grand Bank, Newfoundland and has become part of the Provincial Seamen's Museum.

Serbia on expo2010 in Shanghai

On May 1st 2010 the world expo in Shanghai will open and Serbians are preparing what will be their first participation ever in an Expo since the disintegration of Yugoslavia.  

Each of the participating countries will build a pavillon to represent its culture.

The theme of the Serbian pavilion will be ”City Code”, showing how the traditional Serbian weaving of carpets (cilims) as a process  represents the symbiosis of old and new happening in Serbian cities. 

Eight components of the “City Code” which, through the quality of life of its population, define the vitality of the city will be symbolically presented or „weaved“ together inside the interior of the pavilion: the history of the development of the city, the culture of individuality, commerce, citizenship, the city’s lifestyle, urban ecosystems, art and technology and communications.

In the pavilion the idea of weaving is shown by comprising a network of wedges and cables upon which modules (called "srboblocks") made of metal, plastic or porcelain will be affixed. Inside there will be a ramp that will lead to the story of Serbian cities and the other elements of the exhibition. 

In the facade you see this texture showing 

patterns of traditional Serbian cilim carpets

The construction itself will use a model the process of weaving, merging and matching the modular parts into a whole marked and consumed by its unrepeatable code.

The selection of the system of construction represents an important decision in the process of pavilion building because it will depend on numerous factors, primarily the ease and practicality of the construction handling, or on the flexibility of the system in regards to additional construction and replacement using these modules. 

The architectural team behind this idea are Natalija Miodragovic and Darko Kovacev which founded in 2007 a creative network OPTIMISTI Zeleni zub - sustainable living in Almere, Netherland.

More informations are available on the Serbian website for the expo here:

www.serbiaexpo.rs

It's still not clarified if the Kosovo region will be included inside the presentation, even if I expect Serbia to be clear about it and it would be normal to include it. Let's see then....!