Svetogorska Ulica in Belgrade

This post is about a New Year tradition for Belgradians. In the afternoon of the first of January families go to Svetogorska Street (Светогорска Улица) because then it's called Улица отвореног срца (street of the open heart) where hearts and other things are sold in a sort of donation campaign for sorts of humanitarian actions.
I liked the stands with handmade ethno things, the music (Aleksa Jelic) and most of all: along the way from Svetogorska to Makedonska Street there are a lot of beautiful modern buildings to see.

 

My son loved this bird, the mascotte for the Serbian Football Team

In this street Classical buildings meets ....

Baroque Buildings

Radio Belgrade Building (see post here)

Beautiful Serbian handmade things are sold along the way

The Politika-Building (see post here)

I was very happy to see one of the new artists I like Aleksa Jelic.

Here a nice way to serve hot tea!

Faculty of Law Building in Belgarde

There are some buildings in Belgrade that are built in the spirit of modernism of the 1930's, and this building (at 67 Kralja Aleksandra Boulevard) the faculty of law of the University of Belgrade is one of them (picture from  stefan_serb).

The building was constructed in 1936–40 after a design by the architect Petar Bajalović further elaborated by Petar Anagnosti, an architect and university professor. It was conceived as an unornamented functional modern-style structure arranged on a rounded-triangular plan.

Bajalović saw the site as a corner location and therefore paid careful attention to both street facades creating an imposing entrance on the corner to provide a distinctive accent. The overall impression of dynamism stems from the interplay of alternate cubic and rounded forms, as well as from the sharp contrast between the calm facade surfaces and the monumental entrance portion.

The only accent in the flat facades is achieved by means of the shallowly protruding horizontals beneath the windows.

The projecting portions of the street facades show prominent verticals in the form of pilasters between the windows.
The building has architectural and townscape value as a modernist corner structure which plays a significant role in the articulation of surrounding space and constitutes the starting point of a part of the complex of university buildings. Purposely designed to accommodate the Law School, one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Serbia, it also has cultural and historical value.(Text and pictures from Cultural properties of Belgrade)

Petar Bajalovic also designed the building of Drustvo Svetog Save in Belgrade (picture from Rascian on Skyscrapercity) and the Mihailo Petrovic Alas house (my post about it here)

A cool building in Karaburma (BG)

After WW II Belgrade was a experimental ground for modern architecture. which I particularly like is untypically in a rather rural place called Karaburma, a district of eastern Belgrade. It's a residential tower and it was designed 
by architect Rista Sekerinski in 1963. The building is also called "Toblerone-Building" (as the famous swiss chocolate).

This is the panoramic view from the building

That's how the tower looks today. Because of the concrete facade it's still in a good shape.
(Picture from Karaburma on panoramio)


There are a few other high-rise buildings that were influenced by modern building of the 1960's and are not situated in Novi Beograd.

I took these pictures in the Dorcol area near the Dunav river.

 

While in Novi Beograd modernist projects were made “from scratch”, with no really connection to the surrounding in the old town (like the Dorcol area) modern building are context-conscious and belnd with the surrounding.

A Family in Velika Sejanica gets help from Serbs for Serbs

After writing about the beauties of the Leskovac area and the surrounding villages, I'd like now to share a true story with you, that happened in the village of Velika Sejanica, the village just a couple of km from Kovaceva Bara.

Last time my husband was in Kovaceva Bara he visted his old friend Ranko Milic in the nearby village of Velika Sejanica. Ranko lives with his children Alexandar (20years), Jelena (18 years) and Nikola (10 years) in a very run down house. HIs wife left the family when the youngest son was born. They are (and it's not uncommon in that area) a very poor family and they lack of even the most important things for living. Jelena had to replace the mother and runs the entire household under very difficult circumstances.

My husband felt very sorry about their situation, and had the wish to do something about it.
So we turned to an organisation we support since longer time, it's called SRBI ZA SRBE (Serbs for Serbs) it's a non profit organisation where serbs from all over the world support Serbs and friends of Serbs in need.
My husband described the Milic Family situation and asked them if they could consider to help them.

Two weeks later my husband heard from the Milic family that some people of Srbi za Srbe have been there and discussed with them about the most urgent necessities.
A freezer and a stove would help the family a lot, and as this was decided, the people of Srbi za Srbe bought for around 400€ a new freezer and a new stove in the nearby city of Grdelica.
They made a couple of pictures and asked them to publish them on their website.
Ranko and his family were very greatful for this unexpected help.
My husband and I were very pleased to discover that this organisation works very seriously and that the money we're donating is indeed used for good purpose. One thing is to see proves of the good work on a website...another is to know people personally that got indeed help.
In this place I'd like to thank Srbi za Srbe for the good work and I'm happy to support them further on.


http://www.srbizasrbe.net

Lesson 5 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture: The Moravian House and its Interior

After looking to the entire homestead we gave a close look to the house and its interior.

The house hasn't been touched since Deda Velimir (my husband's grandfather) and Baba Jelica (my husband's grandmother) died, but it was kept always tidy and nothing was really damaged.

A nicely decorated entrance door leads directly to the kitchen. The layout correspond to a classical plan that is often found in the typical Moravian house (Bondruka Style).

Directly from the kitchen there is a bigger room on the left (living room) and a smaller on the right (sleeping room). In the back an access to a little corridor that would lead to a bathroom and another small sleeping room...only that it was not finished.

I quickly measured up the rooms to think about the layout a t home.

It would not make sense to change it radically, as I wanted to maintain the typical, very functional and self-evident plan.

All the beautiful memories of the ancestor's life we found in the house could not really hide the problems that we would have to solve if we decide to renovate it.

As an architect I saw a good potential (good structure, an intelligent functional layout and an outstanding position of the house) but I was wondering how to handle the downsides (obsolete power supply, almost no water, the back of the house not finished, old partly leaking roof and insufficient insulation on walls, windows, roof and door).

Speaking with my father-in-law Aleksandar that runs a building company, we spoke about possibilities, solutions and estimated costs.

With these informations in mind I jotted down a small drawing of what the new layout could be: keeping the front as it is, amplifying the back and enlarging the terasse.

The terasse is really nice and is covered and it makes completely sense to make it bigger!

At home I started researching about more details on traditional rural houses, on construction details (difficult to find...) and on house interiors that would serve as orientation and inspiration.

Whatever I found, I copied down in my moleskine sketch book and collected neatly all the information that could serve me for the future renovation. 

My husband and I decided that we would take the big work and efforts to remodel this house: his father would support us with work and know-how, I would make the plans and details and my husband would organize all the building material in the surrounding and make the paperworks with the authorities to get water, electrical power and eventually to buy the nearby property that belongs to a cousin but would make a good place for the vegetable and fruit garden for us.

I took a last picture of the house before we would start to transform it!