Department Store Nork
Project info
Type:
Competition | Invited
Site:
Mihaila Pupina Blvd, Novi Sad | Serbia
Client:
Aleksandar Gradnja Ltd. | Novi Sad
Surface:
7 334 m2 gross
Budget:
9.000.000 $
Status:
Schematic Design
Year:
2005
Team:
Ilja Mikitišin, Ivana Lolin, Mićo Jelić, Nikola Carević
The business facility "NORK" is located on the corner of Jewish Street and Boulevard Mihajlo Pupin. Designed in its beginning as a close form large-scale building with scares facade, but still it was and remains one of the city's benchmarks with its position and transformation possibilities in the functional organization of the interior space. However, time did its own and the condition of the building requires a completely new radical architectural design expression. The reconstruction included complete modernization and revitalization of the whole building built in early 1970s.
The functional scheme of the existing facility could not justify the demands of new users, in order to that a new approach and radical change in the design concept has to be made. The new concept involves polyvalent use of space with a clear possibility of delineation of certain segments as separate entities. New position of vertical communications creates much more free space in the interior organization with clearly defined zones of movement and zones of areas that will be used. In functional way, the building is clearly divided into three independent units consisting of the Bank, a multifunctional sales area and business apartments with their vertical communications that are not intertwined with each other.
The backbone of the sales area as the most dominant functional zone consists of a block of escalators with a corresponding staircase from the basement to the fourth floor, which has a two-fold role, to enable fast and unobstructed access to the upper floors and with its position on the glass facade to allow natural light coming-in on every floor. The bank is positioned at the very corner of the building, with a public area in front of the entrance from Jewish Street, which is one of the most attractive part of the existing location. The approach from Postal street is used for the supply and servicing of the entire facility.
The reinforced concrete frame construction system is fully respected in the upgraded part of the building. On the new fourth floor, the positions of the existing reinforced columns were used where the new steel column structure is formed as the supporting structure of the roof. This allows the formation of space suitable for the position of the restaurant with a covered roof terrace and exceptional panorama. The elements of the building were used for the design of the facade. The new adaptation of the last floor made a new, attractive and recognizable visual character of the building dominant in this part of the city. Concrete panels, as the leading material of the existing facade, made the building closed and heavy. By combining the aesthetics of minimalism accentuated by the metal construction and glass membrane the clean open interior spaces with the changing appearance of the glass facade intertwined with sunshades were created. The rhythm of concrete panels, coated with alucobond in the wood texture, has preserved the identity of the existing building and made the building more attractive. Facade from Postal street is completely reconstructed with a combination of alucobond, glass, aluminum sunshades and granite linings giving a completely different character to the object in relation to the existing situation.
