2006.

The first ‘Architecture Week’ was opened by prof. Aleksandar Stepanović, member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Belgrade Architects on May 6, 2006 in the crowded Art Gallery of the Belgrade Cultural Center. To the great satisfaction of the organizers, the audience also responded to the other programs within the Architecture Week and thus joined the action of creating a new, more engaged and caring attitude towards the built space. Citizens directly participated in seeing, getting to know and understanding, the architectural action in the space, through a series of exhibitions, lectures, workshops and forums. The open, interactive “Architecture Week” got its place in Belgrade’s bedeker for 2007.

EXHIBITIONS

ARCHITECTURAL COMPETITIONS 2005 and UN HABITAT → Art gallery, Knez Mihailova 6

In the Art Gallery, the very functionally and strongly designed exhibitions Architectural Competitions 2005 and UN Habitat were arranged. The design and setting of the exhibition was done by the Petokrak team. In the gallery, interesting lectures were held for the general public as an accompanying exhibition program: Architecture of the capital, identity of the nation by Tanja Damljanović, Modernity of the architecture of Belgrade by Ljiljana Blagojević, Urban development of Amsterdam by Mira Milanović and Reform in the area of housing-UN habitat by Đorđe Mojović.

THE FORM THAT FOLLOWS A DREAM, Stefan Kurilović → Art gallery, Knez Mihailova 6

An exhibition of photographs of buildings by Stefan Kurilovich, an architect and professor at the Department of Architecture of the Technical University in Warsaw, and his design team was presented in the Artget gallery, and Kurilovich gave a lecture as part of the accompanying program of the exhibition.

THINKING THROUGH SKETCHES, Cvi Hacker → Faculty of Architecture, Bulevar kralja Aleksandra 73/II

The exhibition Thinking through Sketches by Cvi Hecker, an architect and guest lecturer at many schools of architecture around the world, was shown at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Belgrade, while the lecture House of Books was held as part of the accompanying program of the aforementioned exhibition.

WALKS

Thematic walks through the architecture of the city intended for the widest audience are organized every year in cooperation with various organizations, individuals and institutions. Walks of a more modest scale in the first year aroused great interest from citizens, which encouraged the offer and their frequency to increase. Walks are an extraordinary form of popularizing architecture through instructing citizens in the art of reading individual buildings or urban environments. In the first year, three walks were held through Belgrade: the Architecture of Socialism with Ivan Kucin, the Hub of Belgrade with Tanja Damljanović and the Modernism of Interwar Belgrade with Dijana Marić.

LECTURES / WORKSHOPS / PANEL

RING OF VOIDS Workshop

The group from Paris, Studio AWP, publicly presented and applied its Trollprotocol instrumentation in the creation of a proposal for lighting the dark parts of the center of Belgrade. They organized a workshop, and applied the results along the line of the former Belgrade Moat, with the participation of a younger audience.

HOW PEOPLE STARTED BUILDING HOUSES A PART OF THE CITY WHERE WE WOULD LIKE TO LIVE Workshops for children

Workshops for children were designed and led by Prof. Kosta Bogdanović, Rajka Bošković and Branislav Nikolić, authors of the textbooks for art from the 1st to the 4th grade of elementary school. The goal of the workshops was to initiate the inclusion of as many children as possible in this very important way of learning about the basic principles of construction, about the environment in which they grow up, create their urban habits and their relationship to the built. Encouraged by ‘Architecture Week’, the authors expanded the section on architecture in the textbook that was still under construction.

BELGRADE IS OUR CITY Workshop

The workshop with architects is conceived as an interactive conversation with the audience. Citizens were most interested in the built immediate living environment and various tips on the possibilities of their influence on decision-making processes and the environment. Senior citizens exchanged their opinions about the city directly with the architects in a relaxed conversation.

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHY OF BELGRADE Competition

Amateur photography of Belgrade is an important action to encourage active viewing of the city, as well as public expression of opinions through images, and requires greater personal involvement of the participants. On this occasion, 152 photos of various messages were received: criticisms, dilemmas, enthusiasm, concerns, recommendations…

FILM SCREENINGS AND CONVERSATION → Hall of the Cultural Center of Belgrade

Film as a medium that uses architecture to set a scene or uses it as inspiration is an unavoidable part of the manifestation. In the cinema of the Cultural Center of Belgrade, after an interesting introductory panel led by Ivan Kucina and Milan Đurić, the films Buntovnik and Brazil were shown in two days.

SAVA AMPHITHEATER The final panel

The forum was held at the closing of the event, and the participants were Đorđe Bobić, Branislav Stojanović, Vesna Tomić and Bojan Kovacević as moderator. The conversation showed that it is necessary to develop the exchange of opinions of architects with architects as well as with citizens about spaces of importance for the city, with respect for opposing opinions, re-examination of one’s own and a clear and concise statement of personal position.