You probably did not miss the news, from fifteen days ago, that the demolition/removal of Hotel "Korali" in Sutomore - which was realized according to the project of the architect Milan Popović (1934 - 1985) back in 1968 - in order to build something bigger on that site - and certainly more appropriate to the ambitions of the person behind everything.
The reactions of professional organizations (IKCG & SACG) were absent - which does not surprise us at all, of course - and neither the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism - nor the Ministry of Culture and Media (Masha, Masha...) - neither from the Directorate for Cultural Heritage - nor from the Directorate for the Protection of Cultural Property - nor from the Faculty of Architecture...
I have not noticed, if we exclude posts on social networks, that anyone has publicly announced the demolition of one of the representative architectural achievements on the territory of our country.
And now what to say...
Hotel "Korali" is just one in a (long) series of buildings designed by architect Milan Popović that have either been demolished - or, to a greater or lesser extent, have been degraded by inappropriate and/or unprofessional interventions.
Perhaps the place that the architect Milan Popović occupies in the (never written) history of post-war architecture on the territory of Montenegro - with special reference to the events of the seventh decade of the last century - is most eloquently expressed by his five Republican Struggle Awards - five republican nominations for the Federal Struggle Award - and (at least ) five of his buildings that were presented on the pages of the Yugoslav magazine "Architektura Urbanizam".
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In the double issue of the magazine "Architektura Urbanizam", 53-54, which was published in 1968, the hotel complex "Korali" (Hoteli "Korali" - in the original) in Sutomore, authored by the architect Milan Popović, was shown, among other things.
The magazine for architecture, urbanism, applied art and industrial design - "Architektura Urbanizam" was nominally the "organ" of the Association of Architects of Yugoslavia and the Urbanist Association of Yugoslavia - which means that these two Yugoslav professional organizations jointly published the magazine.
Before I get to the point, I must say that in the Magazine "Architektura Urbanizam" - in the period from 1960, when the first issue was published, ending with issue 69, which was published in 1971 - a certain number (perhaps ten , no more) top architectural achievements realized in those 11 years on the territory of the then Republic of Montenegro, by Montenegrin architects - and perhaps as many achievements, certainly not more, also realized on the territory of the Republic of Montenegro, but by architects from other republics - mainly from fraternal Serbia. The presence of the achievements of Montenegrin and other architects in the territory of the Republic of Montenegro on the pages of the magazine "Architektura Urbanizam" - at the time when the magazine had a Yugoslav character (from issue 70, until the last issue - issue 98 - oh those amendments to the Federal Constitution from 1971 - magazine was published under the direction of the Society of Architects of Serbia, the Urban Planning Association of Serbia and the Association of Fine Artists of Applied Arts of Serbia) requires a serious study, certainly - or at least, to begin with, a thorough listing of all numbers (from number 1, ending with number 69), and until then, until the moment when some young doctoral student - very young, very sweet - will take on this responsibility - I would state that the architect Milan Popović is the most represented Montenegrin architect on the pages of the magazine Arhitektura Urbanizam - from number 1 to number 69, I emphasize again.
At this moment, I am sure that Popović's building of the "Maksim Gorki" Elementary School in Podgorica, from 1965, was shown on the pages of the magazine "Architektura Urbanizam" - and then the Hotel "Oliva" in Petrovac, from the same year (with Vladislav Plamenc) - and the "Gojko Krapović" Cultural Center in Budva (Zetafilm), again from 1965 (if I'm not mistaken) - and I'm sure about the Hotel (what was it called...) in Bečići, from the early seventies - and of course: the aforementioned Hotel "Korali" in Sutomore.
So, on the one hand, we have five Republican Struggle Awards of Milan Popović - author and co-author - and at least five of his achievements - author and co-author - which were published on the pages of the magazine "Architektura Urbanizam" - and on the other hand, we have the fact that at this moment in the territory In Montenegro, there is no creation of Milan Popović in its original form - if we exclude the building of the Technical Faculty in Podgorica (with Pavlo Popović) from 1974, on which there was no significant intervention - but that building is in a deplorable state - and intervention on it can be expected in the near future.
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Therefore, the "Republican Jury of Montenegro", says in issue 53-54 of the magazine "Architektura Urbanizam", on page 103, "awarded the Republic Award "Borbe" for 1968 to the Hotel Complex "Korali" in Sutomore, with the following explanation:
The project adopted the principle of developing the building perpendicular to the sea and the coast in order to preserve the continuity of the elements of nature. The jury points out the correctness of the urban planning procedure, which valorizes the landscape with a skillful arrangement of masses".
If we take into account that the author had the task of placing as many as 600 beds on a relatively narrow and deep plot, it will be that his skill was manifested this time, first of all, through the aspiration to move the buildings - blocks with rooms - away from the beach as much as possible, i.e. from the road that goes along the beach, and to position the blocks in such a way that the negative impacts of the upper road - the Adriatic highway from the north - are reduced to a minimum - and, finally, to enable a view of the sea from all 600 rooms - by introducing the so-called herringbones in the foundations of the blocks - which means that the rooms were not perpendicular to the central corridor - the hall - but were slanted for some... How much? Let's say 30 degrees - very similar to Petrovac, a few years before.
"By repeating the elements", says the jury, "the designer achieves an impressive urban and artistic whole that contrasts with the landscape with its monochrome".
Ah, that unbearably (un)intrusive, white modern from the fifties and sixties of the last century - when some incredible and unrepeatable peaks were reached - of which we would be proud today - and which would serve as a role model for us.
"Deciding on this building, the jury", he says, "had in mind that its functional and design solution is modern (above all! - even today it seems as contemporary as it was 55 years ago - op.a.) and that in its totality (totality - that's the key word - op.a.) represents a notable contribution to architectural creativity in Montenegro".
Jury members: Vladislav Plamenac, Dusan Lalicic i Novak Jovovic - architects - Jevrem Brković - writer - i Borislav Vojvodić - journalist.
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Ladies and gentlemen, architects, colleagues, what will we do if tomorrow someone asks us: what are your holy places?
Is there anything built on the territory of Montenegro in the last 100 years that we care about?
I'm afraid there isn't...
Bonus video:
