GREEN ARCHITECTURE

MISSION

Research proves that the building industry stands as a largest emitter of CO2. In the year that warned us that we consume too much, we wanted to examine how to build and not threaten natural and living environment. Supported by a team of young architects we steered our activities towards education through public competition for Supernatural eco pavilion, and series of supporting workshops & public lectures.

COMPETITION

Public competition for young architects (age up to 35), was announced in collaboration with Belgrade Society of Architects and was targeted to create pavilion as a spatial manifesto of sustainability in architecture. The best solution has to be produced and presented at the very festival, and public spaces of Belgrade as well (before the festival). Pavilion has to be a result of creative process, which, in the first round refers to the solution, and workshops in the second round. Workshops are public and will be presenting top five proposed concepts. The Supernatural Eco Pavilion project is supported by The United States Agency for International Development - USAID.

A weeklong workshop led by Đorđe Stojanović, assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade, will work through the details of the pavilion concept. By the end of the workshop, authors presented their work at the public debate, when the winning concept was chosen. Workshops were followed by series public of lectures from the fields of green design and architecture. The jury was consisted of

- prof. Branislav Mitrović, architect
- Grozdana Šišović, architect
- doc. Đorđe Stojanović, architect
- Vladimir Nikolić, painter
- Ana Filipović, architect

- Dunja Predić, architect, project manager

Text of the competition can be downloaded here.

PAVILION

Design program for the pavilion provided the area up to 35m2, with maximum height up to 4m. Pavilion was supposed to have following purposes:

Public space for several types of applied arts & media (printed material, video, 3D material)
Public lecturing space for 30 listeners
Informal space for gathering

WORKSHOP

During the first round of competition, 96 works came in. Due to the large number of works that answered the competition request, the final selection was expanded with 12 works that passed the second round. The works covered the whole green architecture issue from innovative conversion of raw materials into building materials, discrete structures in the natural environment, to structural experiments. Workshop was organized on the first floor of the Cultural Center "Grad" in Belgrade, where the authors consulted daily with the architects Đorđe Stanojević and Pavle Stamenović.

SUPPORTING PROGRAM

The workshop included following lectures:

- Ranko Božović / En Plus Tech- Belgrade, London/ - expert in the field of energy optimization in construction
- prof. Dr Branimir Jovanović – /Center Tesla- Belgrade/ Center for renewable energy
- Tatjana Rajić, architect /Expeditio- Kotor/ - NGO supporting sustainable development concept
- Nataša Ilinčić and Jugoslava Kljakić /Od- Do Studio – Belgrade/ - design & architecture


Tanja Rajić - Expeditio	Branimir Jovanović - Center Tesla

OD-DO ARCHITECTS

ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS

The special guest and lecturer was the French architect Edouard Francois. He gained fame realizing courageous ideas in the field of green architecture such as "Building that grows" in Montpellier and "Flower Tower" in Paris. Francois presented his work at the Belgrade Faculty for Architecture. It was one of those lectures with spontaneous applauding, cheering and laughing. Inspiring saga on the issue of persistence, experiment and courage.

Francois lecturing at the Faculty for Architecture in Belgrade

ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS - Projects

AND THE WINNER IS

Friday, February 19th in Cultural Center "Grad" public workshop took place that presented works of 12 authors that attended the whole workshop program. After the presentation of works and models, jury selected two winning works with the solution by Kako.KO studio (Vesna Pejović, Vladimir Bevc and Jelena Milojević) that will be constructed at the Supernatural Festival. Their proposed idea uses cardboard folds as the basic building material.

Kako.KO is a design studio from Belgrade which utilizes principles of sustainable development through extensive use of recycled materials such as cardboard and PET packaging. Kako.KO are the people behind Belgrade "Pecha Kucha" - international convention of creative minds.

Second prize went to work by Petruševski Ivana.
Third prize went to Žarko Uzelac & Jelena Pančevac.
Nemanja Kordić & Lalović Aleksandar, Radulović Vladimir & Krstanić Đorđe were presented with the repurchase of the works.


Model of the winning solution by Kako.KO studio

Supernatural Eco Pavilion was opened on April, 29th at Kalemegdean next to the "Music Pavilion". The whole project was supported by The United States Agency for International Development - USAID.

ÉDOUARD FRANÇOIS INTERVIEW

Interviewer: Đorđe Stojanović

đs_Your book B2B2SP was recently published, what is it about?

ef_The book is a classic monograph. At one point of your career you decide to put everything together into one book. In a way, it is a significant moment, because you collect all souvenirs from the bureau and pack them into a book. There was plenty of material, we haven't used it all, that was the idea.

đs_Where did you get the idea for the book title? What does this acronym stands for?

ef _I come from the historic, royal family. Only eighty families derive from the King of France, and my name is actually very long, baron... It is almost impossible to pronounce, but I came to an idea to use my name in a creative manner, since Francois is a dull name. So, I took first letters off each of my many names with the numbers in order to make it sound like a rock band or architectural office MVRDV... I like it, and people seem to like it as well, they keep asking me what does it mean?

đs_Does being the descendant of the royal family helps you connect with better clients?

ef _No, no. Not at all.

đs_I wasn't serious. Tell us about your relation to clients. Regarding the presentation you held today, I'd say that you mostly succeed in establishing good communication with clients.

ef _I think that clients choose me, of course, for the three-year period and higher. That is how long the project lasts - you need three years from drawings to the finished construction. First, it is important to be confident in front of the clients. I have a lot of clients that would rather choose boring architecture with interesting architect than interesting architecture with boring architect.
For an example, I had a wonderful experience with Montpellier. My client and I were totally different people but in the end we managed to cooperate just well. It is important that you do not have sex with the client immediately, but get to know each other before the fuck. Same thing with the life. If you fuck the girl immediately after the first date, your relationship will undoubtedly end soon. You are afraid of each other, that way you don't accomplish anything. Same thing with the client. Speaking of Montpellier and the architect-client relationship, we had meetings and lunches for a month. We were talking about this and that. The client was an interesting person, pianist, open on all subjects, but his plan was based on the budget. Even so, I managed to convince him that I will construct an extraordinary settlement and he recognized value in my claims. We agreed how remarkable this project is.

đs_Montpellier housing development is a project that got you through, at least media says so. It was supported by French ministry of culture in their quality architecture campaign.

ef _I will answer this in details. Before the Montpellier I did one small residential settlement that got famous and covered by media. The problem was that this settlement was very authentic and people were not quite sure whether they are ready for such adventure. When I finished Montpellier, I proved that I can do any project, even the bureau project if needed.

đs_One of the issues you tackled with the construction of Montpellier was the time component in the architecture. With the green facade the building keeps changing its appearance. It looks different with the passing of the seasons.

ef _Yes. The time component is always present in my work. The concept of building that change is very important to me. For an example, at the opening of Eden Bio residential settlement, I was talking about nature, trees and flowers. But in that time the flowers did not bloom and there was no plants yet. The interesting thing is that nobody asked where are the flowers, like that story where the king walks around to show his new clothes but nobody dares to tell him that he's actually naked.

đs_You often emphasize that you let the nature do its work.

ef _It is the position that I take often. For the Eden Bio settlement I secured the grounds, top quality soil that took most of our money so I let the nature do its work. The seed produced five meter tall trees. Several years after the construction of this settlement, it ended up totally green. We had to publish this project twice, first time naked and the second time after several years, totally green.

đs_Why are you attracted to the exploration of change in architecture?

ef _It is best not to leave the building, so it could have the life of its own. With the plants the buildings change naturally. I combine landscaping with nature with the intention to let them grow together. Of course, I often listen to positive stories from people who come to live in the buildings I designed. There is a difference between client/contractor and users. I remember, once I tried to take a photo of the residential building Flower Tower in Paris, which was totally covered in bamboo. In order to achieve that I went to the apartment in the building next to it, to take the photo from across the street. The women that let me in told me what pleasure is to look at the walls covered in bamboo, and the way it changes as the seasons pass.

đs_People often ask you about the nature and the relationship between your architecture and natural environment?

ef _People very often ask me things about nature. I always answer that it is a phase in my work. If the Picasso had his blue period, I am often in my green period. I think it is coming to an end. Lot of people are talking about it now and engaging in the green architecture, so I don't feel uncomfortable anymore.

There are plenty of other things to think about. For an example, hotel Fouquet is a kind of vertical collage, it is a totally different subject. We had to take care of the existing surroundings, not to destroy it. But in the same time we tried to avoid creating a simple copy. The question of reconciliation between old and new makes me think of materiality and decoration.