Rehabilitation of the Concrete Façade Envelope of the Sava Center
Renovation, reconstruction and restoration to the former glory of the structures protected by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments are of great importance for the preservation of the identity of spatial environments in which these structures are located, as well as of the architectural movements to which they belong, since they doubtlessly influence the appearance and morphology of the city architecture of bygone times.
The Sava Center is one of the most impressive and complex building endeavors in Belgrade. It was erected in 1976-77 after the design by architect Stojan Maksimović and his associates, carrying the characteristic traits of 1980s modern architecture.
The company of Mapei participated in the rehabilitation of the concrete façade element including deep cascading terraces, recognizable horizontal bris-soleils in the garden and other concrete façade surfaces. The focus was on securing temporal stability of the façade envelope structure, first by applying adequate anti-corrosive protection of the visible parts of the armature, and then by restoring the original geometry of the elements, by means of different high-quality reparation and finishing thin-layered mortars.
In addition to the stability, the esthetic aspect was the key target of the conservation supervision by the Institute for the Protection Cultural Monuments of the City of Belgrade. The building needed to be restored to the shape and color characteristic for the early 1980s, when the Sava Center was opened for the first CSCE (today’s OSCE) summit.
The lecture focuses on rehabilitation of the concrete façade envelope of the Sava Center, with the emphasis on restoring its original form and esthetics, while dedicating attention to the long-lasting character of the implemented technical solution.
