The Irish architectural bureau "Niall Montgomery + Partners" (NMP) removed from its website the landscape architecture project for the area where the Belgrade Fair is located today, after the portal N1 published an article about it.. The projects that that bureau did for the area of Belgrade on the water have also been removed from the website.
Namely, on the website of the Irish office "Niall Montgomery + Partners" (NMP) Recently, a landscape architecture project appeared for the space between Gazela and Ada, where the Belgrade Fair is currently located.
The project for the Belgrade Fair area is not the only one in the capital of Serbia where NMP is involved. By looking at the portfolio on their website, it could be seen that they have created landscape architecture projects for two more residential and business complexes in Belgrade, in the immediate neighbor of the Fair - Belgrade on the Water.
Expansion of Belgrade on the water
Ever since the first announcements about the relocation of the Fair appeared, the public has been speculating that the Beograd na voda settlement will expand on that space.
For decades, the Belgrade Fair was in the status of a social enterprise, but ten years ago the state decided to transfer it to the status of a state enterprise.
A decision was made to reduce the basic capital by 1,139 billion dinars, in order to implement the status change, and the Government of Serbia gave its consent.
When the idea of changing status appeared, pensioners, that is, ex-employees of the Fair, rebelled, because, as they stated, they invested their salaries in the construction of halls, infrastructure, air conditioning.
They appealed this decision to the Court of Appeals, which ruled that a certain percentage really belongs to the employees.
Its privatization was planned back in 2009, when the only offer for 70 percent of the ownership was made by a consortium of the Italian company Sajam Rimini and Verano Motors, owned by Radomir Živanić Baja. That sale was abandoned.
Government marketing moves
Former chief urban planner Đorđe Bobić told the "Vremena" portal that he considers it unacceptable that halls one, two and three are not protected as cultural monuments and that they must be viewed as a whole.
At the moment, only Hall 1 is under the protection of the state as a cultural asset, which must not be demolished, according to current regulations.
"The Belgrade Fair is architecturally precious, at the time it was created it was a major European project, a confirmation of the strong cultural awareness at that time. Changing it, demolishing it is actually another desecration of the city", he notes.
Bobić says that the majority of the profession has serious objections to this, but that despite everything, the government is making expensive plans that, by all accounts, will be paid for by our great-grandchildren.
"The authorities are using the world exhibition "EXPO 2027", which will be held in Belgrade, as a justification for these moves. It's great news that Beaugard got this exhibition, but many things in this project are unclear. The problem is that it started to be decided without a concept. There is no infrastructure, roads, terrain organization and the like, which means that it will be an additional cost that will be paid off by the next three generations," says Bobić.
He believes that Belgrade already has existing capacities that could be used on this occasion, and states that the Fair is the place where "EXPO 2027" could be held.
"According to experiences from foreign countries, often after the event, the space intended for the exhibition remains unused. On the other hand, the Belgrade Fair can improve for that purpose," says Bobić.
As he says, the government is making marketing moves, ignoring the importance and importance of a building such as the Belgrade Fair, as well as the economic situation in which this poor country finds itself.
Construction feat
The Belgrade Fair was built between 1954 and 1957, according to the project of architect Milorad Pantović and engineers Branko Žeželj and Milan Krstić.
On the website of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, it is stated that it was conceived as a modern urban complex, whose compositional emphasis is placed on three exhibition pavilions under domes, interconnected by footbridges.
At the time of its construction, Hall 1 represented a real architectural feat and an exceptional constructive achievement, which could be compared with the world's most famous examples of this type of construction.
The Belgrade Fair is one of the most valuable works of Serbian post-war architecture and is testimony to the technical, technological, scientific and creative rise of society in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Institute's website points out.
Moving to Surčin
The Belgrade Fair continues with the entire Belgrade on the Water complex, which is owned by Belgrade Waterfront Capital Investment, a company from Abu Dhabi that owns 68 percent of Belgrade on the Water. The remaining 32 percent is owned by the Serbian state.
In December 2021, the Beograd na voda company also bought land near Radnička Street that once belonged to Jugopetrol.
If only Hall 1 remains at the existing location, the Belgrade Fair will move to Surčin, as part of the project next to the national stadium.
Within the complex of the National Stadium in Surčin, the plan is to build a whole series of fair halls, pavilions, accommodation and commercial facilities. According to the plan, that space would cover 167 hectares, of which 113 hectares would be intended for the fair space.
Z.S.
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