/ 1968
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SPORTS IN PUBLIC SPACES: A GENESIS OF THE BELGRADE SOKOL GYMS AND STADIUMS

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As the first sports premises built in Belgrade, the Sokol gym halls have a significant place in the urbanistic development of the city in between the two world wars. The question of building a Sokol gym hall was not only relevant to the Sokol gym society, but also to the population at large. Thanks to available archive documents and periodical magazines, we now know that the people of Belgrade took active part in building the Sokol gym society halls and stadiums. This makes research of the Sokol gym halls architecture important not only for the social history of architectural and urbanistic development of Belgrade, but also for the society history in general. In addition to the Sokol gym halls, a significant role in transformation of the public Belgrade spaces belongs to their stadiums i.e. exercising fields. Through an analysis of architectural projects realized under the auspices of Belgrade Sokol gym societies and clubs, we will try to determine their role and significance for the architecture and urban planning of the city, and also determine the manners in which these public spaces contributed to the spread of Yugoslav ideology, as part of a compulsory gymnastic culture and mission aiming at emancipation and modernization of society.

/ 1968
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THE NEW UNIVERSITY CENTRE OF THE INTERWAR BELGRADE

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From the end of the nineteenth century, the urban development of Belgrade tended to communicate political and national ideas through articulation of public spaces. However, the state monopoly caused an excessive subordination to political events and bureaucratic mechanisms, so that the execution of urban plans was usually incomplete, due to changes of power or competences of various administrative institutions. One of the few most complete urban areas, which has retained the same purpose until this day, is the University Centre along the Boulevard of King Alexander in Belgrade. The history of this location began in the second half of the 19th century, when Prince Mihailo Obrenović organized the first gallop races in Belgrade on that site. Towards the outbreak of the First World War, the Belgrade University was given this area for the location of a new University Centre. Development of the complex began during the interwar period, with edifices designed by eminent Belgrade architects, but based on two different urban concepts and plans: one was legal and valid but the other was actually implemented in practice. In spite of being harshly criticized by socialist authorities, the same principle persisted after the Second World War. Although it was perhaps one of the most successful complexes built in Belgrade over several decades, the University Centre is not recognized as such in the visual perception of citizens, mostly because of the lack of blending or a high-quality urban concept. The transformation of this area reflects all the phenomena that dominated over urban development of Belgrade in the last 150 years, and illustrates refraction of different professional premises and political attitudes and desires.

/ 1968
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THE PALACE OF THE SERBIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AND THE PUBLIC SPACE OF KNEZ MIHAILOVA STREET

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Following the transformation of the urban area of Belgrade from a provincial Ottoman city to the capital city of Serbia, ideas for the architectural design for the Palace of the Serbian Royal Academy in Knez Mihailova Street which started to develop at the turn of the 20th century, mirrored a change of taste and influences in the style of architecture. Dominant at the time of the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbia, the design and building projects of the architect Konstantin Jovanović represented a culminating impact of the Vienna Ringstrasse architecture. Rejecting the concept of Viennese academicism at the time of political confrontation of the Serbian Kingdom with the Dual Monarchy towards the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, was followed by а search for a modern architectural approach. A new design with architectural elements of the Viennese Fin-de-Siécle, Paris Art Nouveau and the prevalent spirit of Belle Époque appeared with the projects by the architects Andra Stevanović and Dragutin Đorđević. Suspension of constructions due to the outbreak of the WWI and changes in the architectural climate in Belgrade after the war have led to a rapid devaluation of modernity of the buildings whose construction was completed in 1924. However, bringing an echo of modern consumerism with the shopping passage and elegant stores on the ground floor, coated with abundance of its Belle Époque façades, the Palace of the Serbian Royal Academy became a symbol of Knez Mihailova Street in the main promenade of Belgrade, as a unique public space.

/ 1968
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CONTRIBUTION OF ARCHITECT DANILO VLADISAVLJEVIĆ TO THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC SPACE OF BELGRADE IN THE LATE NINETEENTH AND EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

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Architect Danilo Vladisavljević belongs to the generation of architects who, at the turn of the XIX century, left a significant mark in the Serbian architecture. His public buildings in Belgrade, which were mainly designed in cooperation with other architects, contributed to the representativeness of the city, which, at that time, began to intensively take on the characteristics of major European centres. The main feature of his work was a pluralist style, which involved evoking romanticism, use of academic postulates and art nouveau facades. He built various residential buildings for influential citizens and implemented pioneering urban projects on the territory of Belgrade, Military Hospital Complex in Vračar. He also built facilities for military purposes such as the military barracks in Niš, Valjevo and Smederevska Palanka and two hotels in a prestigious location at the very centre of Belgrade – the “Splendid” and the “Union”. Especially fruitful was his collaboration with the engineer Miloš Savčić on multi-storey outlet buildings such as The Trade and Export Bank, Vračar Savings Bank and the industrial complex of the Belgrade Slaughterhouse. During this cooperation, Danilo Vladisavljević was responsible for the facades and for further development of Miloš Savčić’s designs. His collaboration with architect Svetozar Jovanović on the Officers’ Cooperative Building produced one of the most representative examples of secession architecture in Belgrade. In the process of transforming public spaces in Belgrade, architect Vladisavljević particularly gave important contribution through cooperation with Milo Savčić in realization of the complex of the Belgrade Slaughterhouse, as well as the pioneering urban complex of the Military Hospital in Belgrade. As an important architect from the turn of the XIX century, Danilo Vladisavljević deserves contextualization and actualization in Serbian architectural historiography, and his structures should be treated as an important part of the Serbian architectural heritage.

/ 1968
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THE PALACE COMPLEX AT TERAZIJE: FROM A ROYAL RESIDENCE TO A REPRESENTATIVE PUBLIC SPACE

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The Palace Complex at Terazije was established between mid-nineteenth century, and the beginning of the third decade of the twentieth century as the first royal residence in Serbia designed and built in accordance with an urban plan. It formed the most important micro ambiance of the central urban zone that started a transition from oriental Belgrade to a modern capital with a European character. The development stages in the formation of the complex, starting from the initial construction of the Simić building (The Old Residence, 1840-42), through the decoration of the Palace garden and yard, construction of the Little Palace (around 1845), followed by the Palace of the Crown Prince Mihailo (Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Interior, 1858), and construction of the Old (1881-84) and the New Royal Palace (1911-1922), indicate complexity of the socio-political circumstances of this period in Serbian history, but also of the development of architectural, stylistic and artistic characteristics of the capital’s architecture. Engagement of leading architects, artists, decorators and craftsmen in designing, decoration and furnishing of the edifice and the premises of the palace complex reflects a general picture of the transforming Belgrade’s spiritual and cultural climate, through changing its daily life habits, in which the royal residences often served as a model and an initiator of change. Gradually, a complex mosaic was built intertwining the artistic and the political concepts: from the original idea of the architect, Aleksandar Bugarski, for a tripartite composition of the complex, from which only the Old Palace of King Milan Obrenović was realized, to the completing of the complex with the New Palace according to the design of the architect Stojan Titelbah, to converting the New Palace into a museum institution (The Crown Prince Pavle Museum, 1934-1936), and afterwards to reconstructing both structures and the entire area (1947-53) into a seat of new state authorities. Establishing a harmonious relationship between the structures and their natural and urban environment emphasized specific values of the area based on its accessibility and availability.

/ 1968
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ARMY AND URBAN CITYSCAPE OF BELGRADE DURING 19th AND EARLY 20th CENTURY

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Role of the army in the development of Belgrade was not directly but rather indirectly linked to the development of urban and regulatory planning. Namely, the cartographic work of army-hired officers and experts represents an important legacy in the urban planning history. In addition to this role, military skills were greatly appreciated in the first institutions that regulated the construction and architectural projects in Serbia. Military barracks in Belgrade from the time of Prince Miloš served as inspiration for the construction of other public buildings. Military facilities, which were not separated from buildings for civilian use, had been built in the vicinity of the Great Barrack. There was no plan for creating a separate military district but the idea was to have military facilities located close to each other, so as to ensure efficient functioning of the army. Therefore, the locations chosen for certain military facilities had not always been optimal solutions when it came to their function and meaning. Many of them were built as representative buildings in order to emphasize the important role of the Serbian army in the realization of the objectives of national policy. After gaining independence in 1878, military facilities progressively occupied the surroundings of Belgrade in addition to the central parts of the city. On the one hand, this came as a result of the development of Belgrade and the new needs of its residents, and also due to the growing army and its subsequently increased demands for modern training which needed to be conducted in a free and uninhabited area. These challenges were resolved spontaneously, leading to solutions that failed to fulfil all military requirements and needs which were also at the expense of the needs of the municipality of Belgrade.

/ 1968
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RETHINKING BASIC CATEGORICAL CONCEPTS CONNECTED WITH REVISION OF THE ARCHITECTURAL-URBANISTIC MATRIX OF BELGRADE

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Reviewing any historical topic, when urban architecture is concerned, invariably imposes questioning of the categorical instruments we use. By implicating that we know the subject and the instruments by which we define it, and by staying within the set boundaries of consideration, we may easily slip into misunderstanding. It is therefore necessary to precisely determine the concepts of architectural history, architectural critique and the theory of architecture. They all comprehend different timelines differently while the history of architecture and architectural critique do not provide the same kind of feedback to the concept of Architecture or the City. In this sense, a desired concept of “critical history” must be additionally profiled. Differentiating history from historiography, as well as a history of events from a history of existence of trans-temporal physical structures, are the first steps towards a more flexible, more precisely determined and a more socially useful differentiation of domains. Taking one of many possible examples, a space called Terazijska terasa in Belgrade, we can find a mishmash of logics and actions which has, due to lack of public critical dialogue about the proposed urbanistic decisions, destroyed a very rare opportunity to create outstanding topographic interventions and urban growth ideas.

/ 1968
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ТHE TYPOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURAL AND URBANISTIC TRANSFORMATIONS OF BELGRADE (19TH – 21ST CENTURY)

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So far, the historiographic thought has not paid enough attention to the processes of transforming urban patterns of Belgrade, caused by changing socio-economic interests. Evasive in real time and comprehensible only from a time distance, the cultural identity of the Serbian capital has often changed over the last two centuries, in parallel with its spatial growth, dense development and demographic boom. Its transformations, sometimes radical and sometimes more moderate, were primarily dictated by war destructions, discontinued social developments, overturning of political systems and with it ruling and architectural ideologies, which resulted in too many different styles and non-harmonized height lines of the constructed edifices. The alternations were usually initiated by decisions of state urban planners or spontaneous, mainly unjustified manifestations of “silent” building evolution. These transformations of the Serbian capital which first occurred in a vassal and then in an independent Serbian and later Yugoslav state, had different impacts on the existing system of the city structures and the city life. According to critical thought so far, these transformations can be differentiated by the scope of their completion, civilizational appropriateness (or inappropriateness), degree of justifiability, urbanistic-architectural methodology and ideological-economic platforms that inspired them.

/ 1968
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THE PRINCELY PALACE IN SAVAMALA – FOUNDING SERBIAN BELGRADE OUTSIDE THE TRENCH

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The princely court in Savamala has had an active and powerful role in constitution and promotion of the dynastic propaganda. With reference to the dual nature of monarchic government, a princely court does not exclusively refer to the residence of a ruler, but also stands for the institution of government that is a carefully chosen and structured space with the developed mechanism and manifesto of power. Planning, functioning as well as visual identity of any princely palace were always direct reflections of the royal image and the very nature of the actual regime. The palaces of the Serbian rulers changed abruptly in the 19th century, both in their positions and visual contexts, court ceremonies and the level of openness to the specific public. Those changes that have taken place at princely courts reflected the overall image of historical and social transformation of the Serbian state. In the early stages of his government, Prince Miloš understood and valued the power of political propaganda and already in the early 19th century he started and exerted an expensive public manifesto of power as his palaces had a crucial role in this important part of political programme. The choice of Serbian capital represented a key political issue. Prior to the official recognition of the autonomy and hereditary royal status, princely palaces were located in safely hidden landscapes in mainland Serbia. Now, when newly liberated principality was yet to catch up with the rest of the modern European states, Prince Miloš wanted Belgrade for its capital. The process of making the state/court complex in the district of Savamala revealed all the specific features of Belgrade and its urban development during the first half of the 19th century. Thus, raising the princely palace in Savamala will prove to be a crucial step in transformation of Belgrade into a modern European city

/ 1968
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WESTERN CULTURE AND THE DIGITAL: FROM POLIS TO VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

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This analysis covers certain aspects of the development of Western culture from its beginnings in Ancient Greece to the contemporary tendencies expressed through digital technologies. The authors point out the possibilities, which are arising from ubiquitous use of modern digital technologies, for modification of contemporary Western culture framework and its adaptation to the now suppressed traditions inherited from the ancient times. The important aspects of development that had crucially defined the phenomenon of the Greek polis and set up permanent foundations of the Western culture are identified. Also, similarities and differences are discussed, along with the social innovations brought about by the widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies at the beginning of the 21st century. We have specifically analysed the processes of creation and functioning of a community and compared values based on which the Greek polis functioned with the values of today’s virtual communities. The phenomena of the feelings of belonging, mass participation, influence of the community on an individual and the importance of amateurism are explained as they originally appeared in the framework of polis. Finally, the potentials of revival of these phenomena are analysed in the context of the widespread use of digital technologies today.