The Other Itinerant Architect

Beograd (Belgrade)...28th June

After the downpour last night, today was fresher with a breeze.. even at 27 degrees this seems cool after the last few days. Beograd city blankets the hill; the breeze sweeps up and filters through the streets. It is also very green which avenue lined trees, parks and woods surrounding the city.

I was due to meet Maja and Milan of Spring Studios, that worked as executive architects with Montinvest on the Rossi Project in St Petersburg.
I have not seen them since 2104 after my last visit to Beograd. Then it was a couple of short 'fly in fly out' visits so I only saw Beograd from taxis.

After my 'phone map failure' last night, I intended to make sure that I knew where I was going: I even wrote the address on a scrap of paper. My mistake was to miss a number on the address when putting this into the phone instead of 82, '2 'was added. After walking 4km in an increasing hot day.
I arrived at number 2 to realise that the local fruit stall was not where I should have been... Slightly panicking, I was able to flag down a taxi.. I think the taxi driver was more surprised in picking up an English person than I was being able to flag down a taxi in the middle of the Beograd hinterland..

After nearly 2 hours walking in the wrong direction, the return taxi trip took 15 minutes. The up-side is I did see a lot more of a part of Beograd, had I not made such a hash of putting the correct address into the phone.
After all my wasted effort their office, once I finally arrived at the correct address, was only 200 metres from my apartment....

I meet Maya and Milan in their studio; cool, herringbone timber floors and with a balcony looking over the garden courtyard; and a glass of water...

We went to lunch at Madera in Tasmajdan Park, an oasis after my walk.
Both Maja and Milan were brought up, studied and have committed to work in Belgrade. Maja is also a professor at the architectural school, teaching the next cohorts of students to understand the reality of Architecture.. I have tried for thirty years to learn this.....

Due to the city's geographical importance, located on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, Belgrade has been fought over for centuries, including the first world war that decimated the centre and the bombing by the Germans in 1941.

The Sava meeting the Danube.. Photo taken from the fortress..

The Sava river

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgrade

The rapid expansion of post war Belgrade, including the new city on the opposite river side has created a melange of building styles.. retaining the older buildings that remain..

Walking back from the centre from the fortress, I came across a large, expensive looking showroom for a new, massive development now under construction on the waterfront.

Belgrade is similar to many cities where there is a necessity to continue investing in the city, enhancing the social and public facilities while relying on a 'partnership' of public and private investment. Reading the information in the showroom, this development brings all these issues into focus; Eagle Hills: Belgrade Waterfront.

It is a joint development between the city and a UAE property company Eagle Hills.
Reading more about this development after reaching my apartment it appears that the main concerns for those who live in Belgrade about this development are many: the opacity of the decision making process, what will actually be built, the diminished accessibility to the waterfront and the immense scale and height of the buildings impacting on the whole cityscape.
While there are images of waterfront cafes and retail outlets it is not clear what actually will be built and what the accessibility will be for the city. The city has always had an inextricable link to the Sava river; for militarily, commercial and more recently social activities; will the public be able to still have ownership of the river front?

These buildings have already been constructed... who thought it was a good idea to have the balconies looking away from the river....

This may or may nor be the final design.. no one knows but the height will not change..

On the opposite bank, the 'new' city, designed and constructed in the 50's has that public connection with the river, with parks, cycle ways and real views across the river to the 'old' city.

When in Vilnius a couple of weeks ago, i saw that the city is also developing the waterfront but ensuring the river bank will be used for the public with the commercial development behind, This seems a good social agreement.