Zvezdara Observatory - the first Modernism Monument in Belgrade

When Swiss architect Le Corbusier visited Belgrade in 1911 during his travels across Europe, he dismissed the city calling it “ridiculous capital, worse even: a dishonest city, dirty, and disorganized.” and in a 1955 he commented on pictures of Belgrade’s most outstanding buildings: “Good God, how ugly!” He blamed Belgrade's modern architects of "superficial understanding of modern urban planning".

I can not really agree with him (and I was tortured with Le Corbusier's works my entire course of studies at the ETH Zurich) and I'd like to show this masterpiece of modern architecture that is considered the first monument of Modernism in Belgrade: the Zvezdara Observatory designed by Jan Dubovy (1892-1969) built in the early 1930's.

 

Following Le Corbusiers citation: "soleil, espace, verdure" (architecture needs sun, clearance and greenery) Dubovy planned the observatory buildings as a loose composition of pavillions settled in a park. Each single building is designed with great attention to make it unique yet is related to the others. In the design he paid much attention on strict functionality (some extremely valuable optical and precision astronomical instruments had to find place in some of the buildings) and a simple modern form. 

 

The building when it was built

(picture from the zvezdarskasuma.blogspot)

 

The building today

(picture from the zvezdarskasuma.blogspot)

The construction is logical and pragmatic:A brickwork construction with structural elements in reinforced concrete and domes in steel, wood lining on the inside and sheet metal covering the outside surfaces.

 

Here the front side of the main building as it looks today

(picture from the Observatory website)

And here the back side of the main building

(picture from the Observatory website)

The Observatory in on Zvezdara Hill

Volgina 7,  P.O.Box 74  11060 Belgrade, Serbia tel. +381-(0)11-3088-062 / 3088-073 / 2419-357    fax. +381-(0)11-2419-553 Web: www.aob.rs    e-mail: contact@aob.rs

3 Villas of Dusan Babic Today

Last summer I made a post about the modernist architect Dusan Babic and showed some of his interesting projects. Now i run into some pictures at skyscrapercity of pictures of the actual villas.

The Villa of Karl Reich (1930-1931)

This is how it looked in the plans:

Now it looks like this (picture from francuz 4556 at skyscrapercity):

The villa is at Ulica Sanje Zivanovica number 2 in Belgrade

Villa Protic (1930-1931)

Address: Ulica Zanke Stokic number 5 in Belgrade

And here some apictures from these days (picture from francuz 4556 at skyscrapercity)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, it's rather difficult to find information about Dusan Babic and his projects. And thanks to mmilovan at skyscrapercity I found one more villa that Babic built: Dr. Milutin Ivkovic's Villa from 1937. Here some pictures from the time it was built:

 

Dusan Babic (1986 -1948) was one of the 4 founders of the group of "Architect of the Modern Movement in Belgrade"(together with Jan Dubovy,, Milan Zlokovic and Branislav Kojic) he was a Serb from Banja Luka and graduated at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna in 1923 and moved to belgarde in 1928. At the time of the group founding Babic was employed in the Department of Architecture in the Ministry of Construction. 

He made also a church in Doboj (couldn't find out anything about it).

More about Babic here in my earlier post.

The Krusevo Makedonium

Not so long ago I made a post about some fantastic buildings in Skopje, unfortunately I still didn't visit Macedonia yet, but I discovered another exiting building that is worth mentioning here and I'll plan to visit: the Makedonium or Ilinden-Memorial in Krusevo. (Picture from ww.contemporaryrelations.eu)

This museum and memorial is the work of the famous sculptor Jordan Grabulovski and his spouse Iskra. Its construction started in 1972 and the monument was formally opened on Ilinden (St. Eljah's day) two years later. The stain glass works are made by famous painter Borko Lazeski, and the ceramics works iare by Petar Mazev.

(picture by Jarko on Panoramio)

The monument contains the tomb of Nikola Karaev, who was made president of the Republic of Krusevo in 1903 after the Ilinden uprising against the Ottomans.

The artistic and aesthetic expression of the monument complex, which covers 16 hectares, starts with broken chains, continues with a crypt and a colorful mosaic of ceramic material, ending with a building placed 1'320 m above sea level.

The spot offers a wonderful view of the town of Krusevo, Pelagonija, and Meckin Kamen.

The last two pictures are from Daniel Ursprung.

The touristic site of Krusevo (here)

Living Belgrade from Coba - Serbian Design and Branding

Some time ago I discovered this publication by COBA & associates called LIVING BELGRADE and I loved it so much that I want to share it with all of you. A magnificent collection of streets, houses and people that come together to create something that we know as Belgrade.

The team around Creative director Slobodan Jovanović-Coba put together an exiting (and graphically apealing) brochure with all their favorite highlights, foods, coffee shops, drinks, clubs, fashion, design, music, stores and much more of Belgrade.

Jovanovic wished to keep a record of the changed and to learn from them and create something better and more honorable. it was also a way for him to point out those little things that make up a big city.

He writes: "We will not be unrealistic and fantasize, but rather offer our professional point of view as a solution and inspiration on how to deal with the daily cacophony of irritation and noise."

You can download the brochure here (in English) and here (на српском) and it's a great adventure to flip through the wonderful pages:

Included are also the  CLASSIC TOP 5 of Belgrade's architecture:

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART(I made a post here)

HOUSE OF THE FEDERAL EXECUTIVE COUNCIL (I made a post here)

SPORTCOMPLEX 25.MAJ (I made a post here)

PRINTERY BIGZ (I made a post here)

THEDEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMPLEX (GENERALŠTAB) (I made a post here)

Who is the man behind this great work?

Slobodan Jovanović Coba

 He is the creative director of Coba & Associates a design and branding agency in Belgrade. I'll write surely more about the great work that he's doing with his team.

http://www.cobaassociates.com/

NATO TARGET: Avala Tower finished!

11 years ago during the three month NATO bombing agression of Serbia the Mount Avala Tower was stupidly destroyed.

I write "stupidly" because Radio Television Serbia broadcasting did not suffer as it was relying on a network of local TV stations which were obliged to relay its program throughout the whole of Serbia. A special bomb was used to destroy the tower. The blast was one of the loudest explosions heard throughout Belgrade during the NATO bombardment.

All of the effort of the creators of this unique structure, which took five years to build (it was completed in 1965 with 4,000 tonnes of armored concrete and a 25-tonne 60-metre antenna) disappeared in just a few minutes. I made a post about the old tower here.

I followed on Beobuild how the re-construction was going on, and now after 3 years of works (but planning started in 2005) the tower is finished. The works were done by the workers of Ratko Mitrovic Dedinje Construction Firm (no, not my relative!).

Apart from the panoramic view and the restaurant covering 100 square metres at a height of 120 metres, there will be an additional 1,000 square metres of usable space for business and cultural activities at the foot of the tower.

 last works on the panorama-restaurant 

on top of the tower (pictures from beobuild)

 The reconstruction was suported by many artists, journalists and students, seeing it as a couragious act, in a continually economically challenged country like Serbia, but the symbolic act of raising such a tower was also the wish to show how pointless the NATO destruction was.

 The view from the tower 

(you see over Belgrade and over half of Sumadija)

But what was the reason for bombing Serbia (Yugoslavia) and why that focus on TV stations and antennas?
I'd like to share some interesting texts about it:
  

How U.S. Media Supported War Crimes in Yugoslavia

By Jim Naureckas

David Vs. Goliath: NATO Agression Against Serbia 

by de-construct.net

 

Exposing the Truth on NATO-US Agression against Yugoslavia
by Diana Johnstone