On a modestly sized site, on sloping terrain in one of the most beautiful parts of Belgrade's urban heritage, at a dividing point where the solid city core begins to break and the city opens up towards larger green spaces, the task was to build a business and residential complex as a fresh input, a connecting and defining an element of space at the three-way junction of Milan Rakić, Batutove and Preševska streets.
In an environment dominated by a beautiful city park and the pre-war architecture tucked between the thick crowns of the street trees, the designer has successfully integrated the new building into the urban landscape with a modern expression. The building has a residential and commercial nature, with an underground garage, shops on the ground floor, business on the 1st floor and residential units on the upper floors.
The quality of the architecture was achieved through a simple approach. Disjointed facade fragments in matrices of stone, aluminum and glass give a pleasing and striking artistic expression. The simplicity of the harmony of lines and rhythm is based on the play of elements and structures that are deliberately apparent where solid walls have been replaced by glass surfaces, achieving a connection between the building and its surroundings. At the same time, the emphasized visibility of the structure clearly expresses the functional interior.
The proportions and rhythm of the many future flower-clad balconies and loggias break the strictness of the flat surface of the facade canvas and express the effort to make the building conform to the aesthetic laws of its surroundings, and in this dialogue receive in return the canopies of the tall vegetation in all its greenery. The fragmentation of the artistic structure of the building can be seen both in the detail and globally.
The specific configuration of the terrain conditioned the concept of the building in two independent wings that appear divided into 4 orthogonal volumes, different in size and placed according to the morphology of the terrain and the form of regulation of the streets that define it. At the same time, sufficient space was left to form a green courtyard in the interior of the block as a testimony to the aspiration for equal treatment in the experience of passing from open space and nature to the street- and courtyard-oriented residential units.
This micro-urban happening was given a narrow promenade - a well-arranged pedestrian communication launched in harmony with the slope of the terrain, which wraps around it on the street sides and connects it with the environment through the green strips that frame this urban micro-entity.
Precise and stable in its artistic integrity, the building is a fine example of modern spatial design possibilities, contemporary expression and an irreducible spatial ambition.
In urbanistic terms, the building is a stepping stone into the existing fabric of the urban heritage, with a refined architectural simplicity experienced in the macroprosphere as a new city topography.
