The exhibition “Belgrade Fair: Innovation of Technology, Architecture, and Culture” observes and analyzes the architecture of the Belgrade Fair through the prism of technology, placing the autonomy of the work before the author’s intentions, interpretation of the cultural context, and, in the broadest sense – outside of the ideology.
Observing the buildings of the Belgrade Fair in this manner – as autonomous works, the architecture of the Belgrade Fair can be assessed as immensely rational, without stylistic, historical, and market speculations – as a high expression of technology and the era of construction. Ludwig Hilberseimer, a German architect and urban planner, defined architecture that possesses these features as the architecture of the metropolis ie. the architecture of big cities.*
The Belgrade Fair is an important place where the application of the technology patents of the IMS concept of prestressed concrete, construction technology of large spans with minimal thicknesses of concrete shells, and prefabricated concrete elements took place.
The realization of these innovations has had and still has a significant influence on the development of construction and architecture of both public and residential buildings. Parallel with the development of technology, we see the development of the export industry, the development of consortia, and of financial frameworks in which large state projects originate.
The housing blocks based on the IMS technology are the product of a rational architecture based on thoroughly developed individual housing units on the one hand and a developed collective urban structure on the other. * The systematized solutions cataloged in the IMS publications unequivocally indicate this procedure, showing the relationship between the two extreme scales of the city’s architecture – the spatial unit (living cell) and the urban system.
The moment that architecture, in the period of social transition, ceased to emerge through the rational relationship of construction and form can be considered the moment of interruption of the development of metropolitan architecture and return to the development of the city through the market, speculative, historical and stylistic narratives. In the architecture of Belgrade, we can precisely detect this moment both in time and in the urban space.
The Belgrade Fair is one of the significant entities that still carry and live the spirit of the architecture of the metropolis within its Halls and events. Its future development and survival are questions of the survival of one of the identities of our society. These buildings carry a value that goes far beyond the ideological background of their origin.
In addition to the architectural and technological innovation of the Fair, the exhibition “Belgrade Fair: Innovation of Technology, Architecture, and Culture” shows a part of the rich program that this architecture has enabled.
It points to the importance of such buildings, stating that events that a metropolis requires and generates cannot take place outside of the metropolitan architecture.
After the economic collapse in 2008, contemporary architecture gradually withdrew from the architecture of the spectacle, where architects and architecture were seen as media stars. The new generation of architects finds its retreat in the architecture of rationality, anonymity, and structurally formal clarity.
Similar to the architects of previous generations (Aldo Rossi, Archizum, O.M. Ungers, Rem Kolhas…), they return to the texts of Ludwig Hilbersheimer, trying to re-establish the connections between the city, architecture, and socio-economic mechanisms of modern society through a modern interpretation of the architecture of the metropolis. Bearing in mind that a significant part of our tradition and architectural heritage can be seen as the architecture of rationalism and the architecture of the metropolis, this could be a starting point for overcoming the ideological and production crisis in which our local architecture has been for a long time.
*Hilberseimer, Ludwig. Metropolisarchitecture. New York: Columbia GSAPP Books, 2012
Izložba „Beogradski sajam: Inovativnost tehnologije, arhitekture i kulture“ arhitekturu Beogradskog sajma posmatra i analizira kroz prizmu tehnologije, pri čemu autonomiju dela stavlja ispred autorskih namera, tumačenja kulturološkog konteksta i, u najširem smislu – izvan ideologije.
Posmatrajući građevine Beogradskog sajma na ovaj način, kao autonomna dela, arhitektura Beogradskog sajma se može oceniti kao krajnje racionalna, bez stilskih, istorijskih i tržišnih spekulacija – kao visoki izraz tehnologije i epohe građenja. Ludvig Hilbersaimer, nemački arhitekta i urbanista, je arhitekturu koja poseduje ove osobine definisao kao arhitekturu metropole, tj. arhitekturu velikih gradova.*
Beogradski sajam je važno mesto primene tehnoloških patenata IMS-ovog koncepta prednapregnutog betona, tehnologija konstrukcije velikih raspona sa minimalnim debljinama betonskih ljuski i prefabrikovanih betonskih elemenata. Realizacija ovih inovacija imala je i ima veliki uticaj na razvoj građevinarstva i arhitekture kako javnih, tako i stambenih objekata. Paralelno sa razvojem tehnologije, iako u okviru socijalističke ekonomije, vidimo razvoj izvozne industrije, razvoj konzorcijuma, kao i razvoj finansijskih okvira u kojima nastaju veliki državni projekti.
Stambeni blokovi nastali na osnovama tehnologije IMS-a produkt su racionalne arhitekture koja se bazira na detaljno razvijenim individualnim stambenim jedinicama sa jedne, i razvijenom kolektivnom gradskom strukturom sa druge strane*. Sistematizovana rešenja koja su kataloški prikazana u publikacijama IMS-a nedvosmisleno ukazuju na ovaj postupak i odnos dva ekstrema razmere arhitekture grada – prostorne jedinice i urbanog sistema.
Momenat kada je arhitektura, u periodu društvene tranzicije, prestala da nastaje kroz racionalni odnos konstrukcije i forme može se smatrati i momentom prekida razvoja arhitekture metropole i povratkom razvoju grada kroz tržišne, spekulativne, istorijske i stilske narative. U arhitekturi Beograda ovaj momenat se može jasno detektovati kako u vremenu, tako i u prostoru grada.
Beogradski sajam je jedna od velikih celina koje još uvek nose i žive duh arhitekture metropole i svojim halama i svojim događajima, te su njegov budući razvoj i opstanak pitanja opstanka jednog od identiteta našeg društva. Vrednost ovih građevina treba sagledati nezavisno od ideološke pozadine njihovog nastanka.
Izložba „Beogradski sajam: Inovativnost tehnologije, arhitekture i kulture“ pored arhitektonske i tehnološke inovativnosti Sajma, prezentuje i deo bogatog programa koje je ova arhitektura omogućila i ukazuje na značaj postojanja ovakvih građevina, jer manifestacije koje jedna metropola zahteva i generiše ne mogu se izvesti van građevina koje imaju karakteristike arhitekture metropola.
Savremena arhitektura posle ekonomskog kraha 2008. godine postepeno uzmiče od arhitekture nastale u okvirima spektakla, gde su arhitekte i arhitektura reprezentovani kao medijske zvezde. Nova generacija arhitekata svoj uzmak nalazi u arhitekturi racionalnosti, anonimnosti i strukturalno formalnoj jasnoći. Oni se, kao i arhitekte prethodnih generacija (Aldo Rosi, Arhizum, O.M. Ungers, Rem Kolhas…) vraćaju tekstovima Ludviga Hilbersaimera, pokušavajući da na osnovu njih ponovo uspostave veze između grada, arhitekture i socio-ekonomskih mehanizama savremenog društva kroz savremenu interpretaciju i tumačenje arhitekture metropole. Imajući u vidu da se značajan deo naše tradicije i arhitektonskog nasleđa može sagledati kao arhitektura racionalizma i arhitektura metropole, ovo bi mogla biti i polazna tačka za izlazak iz idejne i produkcijske krize u kojoj se domaća arhitektura već duže vreme nalazi.
*Hilberseimer L (2012). Metropolisarchitecture. New York: Columbia GSAPP Books