Imagine that you are in Podgorica and that, without suspecting anything, you went for a walk along Beogradska Street - the so-called Alley of the greats of self-governing socialism - one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful street in Podgorica - from the direction of Budućnosti Stadium, in the direction of the Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts (CANU). You pass that building, a two-story building, which they say was signed by Milan Popović - that two-story building is on the left, it is the last in a row of residential buildings before the house in the middle of the fenced park, the house where CANU is located today - and you cast a casual glance right at to that house, towards CAN - left, then up, through the park, through the conifers...
Let's say you saw a hangar - of imposing dimensions - 30 m X 15 m, approximately, and another sixty meters long. Let's say it's a Space Shuttle hangar and it's located right next to CANA. Maybe it's not a hangar - maybe it's a space laboratory for field research on nearby planets - packed into an adequate space container. Perhaps it is a mobile container for transporting new generation nuclear warheads. Whatever it is - a hangar/container or something else - it's big, too big, massive, space-like and located next to CANA itself, on the west side, towards the Small Sports Stadium - and if you ask me, I strongly feel that it's not there place...
This is what the future will look like if one - any - of the conceptual solutions submitted to the Competition for the conceptual architectural-urban solution of the CANU facility in PG is implemented. Let's hope that doesn't happen though...
Žarko Burić (Normal Tours) started digging two years ago, in mid-December 2015. a foundation pit for a future skyscraper about fifty meters high - 20 m X 20 m, approximately - right next to Hotel Podgorica. And we jumped in unison to defend the most significant achievement of the architect Kana Radević from the negative visual impact of the future Burić skyscraper (which in the meantime took on its imposing shape, to which, by force of circumstances, whether we like it or not, we are slowly getting used to it). And when someone - we don't know who, we don't know when - it occurred to him to build a new CANU building - the dimensions of which roughly correspond to the dimensions of Burić's skyscraper - which was placed right next to the house where CANU is located - and when that someone is in the name of The Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism announced a tender - some immediately ran to work on that tender - and there is nothing controversial about that, of course - but it is disputed that some of those who were expressly against Burić's skyscraper also ran to work on the tender for the new CANU building...
Of course, the house in which CANU is located cannot be compared to Kana's hotel - there are only a few architectural achievements on the soil of Montenegro that are in the same level as Hotel Podgorica - but that house, if you ask me, is also a valuable architectural achievement - worthy of both attention and protection - which certainly rules out some kind of hangar/container next to it. And it is strange, to say the least, that many people are bothered by the skyscraper next to the Hotel Podgorica, and that, apparently, no one would mind the same skyscraper, just placed, next to CAN - in that beautiful park, among those mighty conifers - where, if I you ask, it's not the place at all.
One of the cheerful groups that took part in the competition for the new CANU building - composed of: Milić Đerković, Aleksandar Ašanin and Ivan Asanović - had only words of high praise for the existing CANU facility (the so-called A3 notebook, which you can download at: architecture .mrt.gov.me):
"... it (the building, i.e. the house where CANU is located - op.a.) represents one of the rare surviving examples of early modernism in Titograd architecture (early modernism? - if it is early modernism, then Hotel Podgorica is probably late modernism) , maybe even early brutalism? - and what is it that makes the architecture of Titograd Titograd, if we exclude the fact that some of that architecture is still located on the territory of the city that was once called Titograd? - op.a.) which as such would (be careful now - op.a.) should be preserved as much as possible - in its original form - with the most necessary interventions that would contribute to its more adequate functioning in modern conditions of use".
Despite this attitude, the cheerful group decided to support, by participating in the aforementioned Competition, that someone - we don't know who - who had the idea to attach an imposing hangar/container or something else to CANA - to the house that the same cheerful group previously sang, that she couldn't have done better. Doesn't the position that the CANU building should be "preserved to the maximum extent possible" imply the obligation to understand the planned hangar/container next to CANU as equivalent to Burić's skyscraper next to Hotel Podgorica?
I like this "the most necessary interventions that would contribute to its more adequate functioning in modern conditions of use". Didn't Mr. Burić, at one time, make only the "necessary interventions" at Hotel Podgorica in the name of its more adequate functioning "in modern conditions of use"? Didn't we agree, once upon a time, that Burić's interventions at Hotel Podgorica, carried out in the middle of the last decade, were extremely inadequate - not to use a harsher word.
I would like to single out two very significant sentences from the document entitled "Initiative for the establishment of prior protection at the Hotel Podgorica and its surrounding area" - with an emphasis on the surrounding area, of course - written by the respected Dr. Milica - everything that was once ours is now mine - Vujošević, on behalf of the non-governmental association KANA/ Who if not an architect?, and sent it to the address of the Administration for the Protection of Cultural Property, and to the hands of Dr. Anastasia - who, not what - Miranović. The initiative was sent by Dr. Vujošević on December 31, 2015, and it states:
"Apart from the building of the Hotel Podgorica itself, which occupies a special place in the collective memory of the citizens of Podgorica, (pay attention now - op.a.) protection is also necessary for its surroundings, as a location that forms a historical, architectural, visual and functional whole with the building of the Hotel Podgorica. The protection of the area around the hotel is of vital importance for its continued existence, use, preservation and research, as well as for its historical context and visual recognition."
One of the signatories of this Initiative is Aleksandar Ašanin - a member of the aforementioned happy group that took part in the Competition for the new building of CANU - and therefore I am surprised that he did not notice the analogy between the Hotel Podgorica and the existing CANU building complete with Villa Gorica, i.e. between the locality that together with the building of the Hotel Podgorica, it forms a historical, architectural, visual and functional whole, and the locality, which together with the house where CANU is located and Villa Gorica, forms a historical, architectural, visual and functional whole.
If, at one time, we condemned Mr. Burić for his intention to attach a magnificent skyscraper to Hotel Podgorica, why should we support the intention to attach a horizontal equivalent to Burić's skyscraper to the house where CANU is located, in the immediate vicinity of Villa Gorica? Maybe everything would be fine if Mr. Burić decided to build his skyscraper next to Hotel PG? And what if these guys from MORiT think of building a 50 m high skyscraper next to CANU instead of a hangar/container?
Anyway, if the participation of Aleksandar Ašanin - a member of the original lineup of NU KANA/ Who if not an architect? - in the Competition for the conceptual architectural and urban solution of the CANU facility, it is not hypocrisy - or hypocrisy, as the ancient Greeks would say - then I don't know what hypocrisy is...
Bonus video:
