OPEN ACCESS
This article presents the design methods and results of research conducted by Master’s degree students on situating an architectural intervention in the protected natural landscape of Park Forest Košutnjak. The aim was an attempt to put this important, albeit widely neglected, park forest back on the cultural map of Belgrade. This meant that a high level of urbanity could be achieved by way of reorganising its structure, increasing its vitality, attractiveness and accessibility, while preserving its value as heritage landscape. Architecture does not regard nature simply as a physical backdrop for the built structure. The elements and rhythms of complex natural phenomena, through topography, climate and vegetation, become an inspiring part of the architectural discourse. Thus, nature and architecture are allowed to intersect and intertwine, affecting the process of urban living and creating a new cultural landscape. This article suggests that the treatment of protected landscape requires a new architectural paradigm, in which nature and architecture would form a unique place-based system. This approach would contribute not only to resolving the problem of how to revitalise a park forest but also to raising awareness of the adaptive quality that such a place possesses in the context of environmental change.
architecture, design project, landscape, nature, students
[1] Nikezic, A. & Jankovic, N., Košutnjak – Landscape as a Learning System. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 160, eds. C.A. Brebbia & S. Hernandez, WIT Press: Southampton, pp. 55–67, 2012.
[2] Benzel, F.K., The Room in Context. Design Beyond Boundaries, Princeton architectural press: New York, 1996.
[3] Van der Laan, D.H., Nature and architecture. Architectonic Space: Fifteen Lessons on the Disposition of the Human Habitat, Brill Academic Publishers: Leiden, pp. 1–11, 1983.
[4] Soria Lopez, F.J., Architecture and nature at the end of the 20th century: towards a dialogical approach for sustainable design in architecture. WIT Transactions on the Built Environment, 86, WIT Press: Southampton, pp. 23–33, 2006.
[5] Van Hal, A., The keyword is quality not ecology. Eco-Architecture: Harmonisation between architecture and nature. WIT Transactions on the Built Environment, 86, WIT Press: Southampton, pp. 35–44, 2006. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2495/ARC060041
[6] Anselm, A.J., Developing designs in balance with nature. Eco-Architecture: Harmonisation between architecture and nature. WIT Transactions on the Built Environment, 86, WIT Press: Southampton, pp. 195–205, 2006. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2495/ARC060201
[7] Pallasma, J., The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, 2nd edn., Wiley: New York, 1996.