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New Electrical Faculty and Technical Campuses

Project info

Type:

Culture facility and landscape design

Site:

Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73, Palilula, Belgrade, Serbia

Client:

Government of the Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development

Surface:

23.500 m2 gross

Budget:

30.000.000 $

Status:

Schematic Design

Year:

2022

Team:

Ilja Mikitišin, Lazar Kuzmanov, Igor Mikitišin, Nemanja Dačić

Technical faculties are located in the central city zone between important city roads: Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra and Karnegijeva, Kraljica Marija and Rooseveltova Streets, and their border forms the scope of the competition solution and they are of exceptional importance for Belgrade in terms of traffic, but also in terms of environment. The zone of intra-block space between the faculty buildings has been an unused space for years, and it is certainly valuable for the formation of an integration concept that will connect the students of the faculty but also important city communications and connections, given that it is located on the transfer hall between the Tašmajdan Park and the Park near the Wolf Monument and represents a visual rather than a communication link between these two extremely important park areas. That wider context is of great importance for considering the proposal for an urban planning solution for the arrangement of this block space.

Nikola Tesla, as a scientist, contributed the most to science and technological progress in the world as the inventor, among other things, of the rotating magnetic field. Observing the "courtyard" between the buildings of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Architecture on the one hand, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Technology on the other and the buildings of the University Library and Archives, we recognize the space that was necessary to give the character of a magnetic field where not only functions and communications of these institutions, but also the scientific ideas of students of these higher education institutions could fluctuate. The idea of ​​our urban magnetic field is to periodically change the direction of our users, but that the movement coincides with the axes of communication since the intensity of the movement changes in time, we can call it an alternating and pulsating solution. The desire was to create such spaces that were missing for students, places where they will gather, socialize and from which they will have easy access to contents for monitoring the classes of all faculties.

The topic we dealt with is the organization of the campus, which has never in the classical sense existed in a mutual relationship between these faculties, even though this is the only place in the city where the faculties are even physically referred to each other. The idea was to create a public space that would be used by both students and citizens. The only similar space in the city is the Student Square next to the Faculty of Philosophy, Philology and Mathematics. The idea was to create a primary place for students, which will also be used by citizens. That polyvalence is something that was missing in the spatial relationship of the faculty. For this reason, a building that was designed is spreading over the inner block, whilst in its underground levels receives all the necessary and defined contents needed for the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and above it the area is freed for a designed and recognizable landscape where everyone will find their place through various events, mutual communication and rest.

If we start from the entrance part and the newly designed plateau towards Rooseveltova Street, which acquires the character of the main entrance to the building, the goal was to bring the building's approach segment closer to future users in the best possible way. The transparency of the glass surfaces, the transparency of the hall space, and the distinctive volume of the first two floors, which in cooperation with the three underground floors, form a talon on which two above-ground objects appear as a sign of a rounded representation of architectural design. The plateau in front of the entrance and the opening of the building and the covered part of the external hall of the building forms a unique element that allows to solve the entrance part aesthetically. With the proposed ramps and sloping terrain, pedestrian communications are an integral part of the architectural solution. The idea concept in the composition of the new architecture is to preserve the identity of the neighboring buildings with the modern design recognition of the new building and the use of modern materials.

As a contribution to green construction, partially uneven plateaus are planned, which will be covered with low and tall vegetation, and the specific landscape designed in this way will exude the life that will be dictated by the students who will use it. The atriums will allow the penetration of light to the underground levels so that they will form one architectural unit with the parts of the building that are on the higher floors. With this comprehensive approach to shaping the interior of the building and two verticals in the form of two towers, a unity of aesthetic and functional architectural expression was achieved. The proposed organization and structuring of the contents of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering was directly caused by a clear program. A schematic approach to the organization of space in which certain functional zones are precisely defined is also a priority when designing this type of facility.

The entrance plateau itself is a crossroad where the student is unambiguously referred to certain levels in accordance with the needs of the teaching. In the entrance hall itself, there are cafes, a museum and a bookstore with a photocopier room, while in direct correlation with the entrance there are teaching rooms as well as meeting and conference rooms, as well as a ceremonial hall. In the zones that are connected to the atrium are Labs and are 4 amphitheaters, each with a capacity of 200 students, and they have direct communication via stairs and elevators with the entrance hall on the upper floor, and on the lower floor with the green atrium and inner courtyard. Classrooms and computer rooms are organized on the right side of the entrance and on the floor above the ground floor. This part of the faculty, which will be the most frequent, is organized with clear directions and communications so that orientation of students in relation to their needs is the easiest. In two vertical parts of the building, two towers, which rise above the spilled functional scheme of the building, the offices of professors, docents and assistants are located. Their position is functionally defined as separate and apart from the rest of the faculty. And in a symbolic sense, they represent the position where the bearers of the scientific work of the faculty itself are located, as well as symbols of science and the achievements and aspirations of all those who are sent to this higher education institution for the purpose of acquiring knowledge. With this clear functional division, the topic of realizing the functionality of the facility is solved in the responsible way.

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