The National Architectural Forum was opened by our architect partner – Milka Gnjato, a member of the board of directors of the Association of Belgrade Architects and one of the founders of the Association of Serbian Architectural Practices. Speaking on behalf of the architectural community, she highlighted the significance of the Forum and pointed out the social importance of the architectural discipline.
We are transcribing Milka Gnjato’s speech in its entirety:
Our gathering today is the result of probably the most important event in the last few decades for our profession – the National Architectural Strategy – NAS, brought by MSGI, received the unequivocal support of the entire architectural ecosystem in the country and it is the document around which we will build our profession in the future
While preparing for this forum, I reflected on the title of this year’s Architecture Salon, ‘We Have Politics,’ and was reminded of the oldest yet most succinct reflection on architecture: that it is an art form dedicated to promoting social good. This thought was expressed by Plato in his work ‘The Republic’.
Architecture and the built environment have, since the earliest forms of social organization, been promoters of social values. Long before the advent of information systems, they served as extensions of our bodies, consciousness, and society. It is an old idea that the quality of the built environment and aesthetics cannot be separated from politics, nor do they exist outside of it. This notion remains relevant today.
When we say that architecture is a reflection of the time in which it is created, we should first consider the politics and culture from which it emerges.
It is widely and globally acknowledged that our profession is in crisis, and we are not unique in this regard. The question is where we stand on this scale of crisis, and more importantly, whether ‘crisis’ is the right term. Perhaps it is more about the complexity of today’s world, which we need to understand first in order to be influential.
In the research of the Canadian Institute of Architecture on the role of the architect in the society of the 21st century, there is an interesting graph – 1700. the decision-making process in designing was 100% in the hands of architects, in 1800 75% and 25% in the hands of landscape architects, in 1875. 50% are taken over by civil engineers, engineers of other professions, 1900. the role of the architect participates with 25%, and the 2000s are a period of dominance by project managers and developers, where architects participate in the construction process with less than 15%.
If we change our consciousness, we will understand that these facts are not a contribution to the statement of crisis and impotence, but represent the complexity of the 21st century, and such an understanding is the starting point for building the functionality of the profession.
What is our role and position in the complex reality of the 21st century, should we be visionaries or implementers, philosophers or practitioners, educators or educated, leaders or specialists, in dialogue or proclaimers, activists or mediators, asked or those who question? I think we are, we were and we will be all that.
However, we must not forget that the greatest strength and contribution of architectural activity is the principle of synthesis. Synthesis of conclusions and information is needed today more than ever in this complexity of problems, challenges and participants.
And for synthesis, above all, cooperation and dialogue are needed.
We need dialogue at all levels – dialogue within the profession with the aim of becoming a true partner to society, dialogue with other actors in the construction process from ecology and sustainability experts, through investors to market and economy experts, we need dialogue with society or we need a dialogue with decision makers that has been absent for at least 20 years. Many of the problems we are currently facing in public life are the result of the fact that until today’s gathering we did not have a single platform of dialogue where we could hear each other.
The goal of the forum.
I hope that this forum and the first strategic document will represent a key and turning point in building a process of cooperation with the ministries of construction, culture and education and science, the ministry of public investment and the ministry of state administration and local self-government.
Without good policy and without good planning, there is no responsible and high-quality architecture and built environment, there is no sustainable future and the result is the same as in unplanned construction.
We therefore need a national consensus on architectural activity as an activity of national interest.
However, it is also necessary to recognize where the domestic crisis of our profession really is. And it is primarily in the decision-making process, which is insufficiently developed and inadequate to the requirements of the time in which we operate.
We therefore need a legislatively supported decision-making process on the built environment and architecture, in which the profession should have an essential place.
It is necessary for the architectural profession to take responsibility for the built environment, and this is only possible after the establishment of an independent architectural chamber
On the way to the establishment of the chamber, we need functional mechanisms for the implementation of policies of the quality of architecture and the built environment:
- Formation of the National Council for Architecture, as foreseen by the National Architectural Strategy;
- Formation of State and City Architect institutions, which would personalize responsibility in the field of urban planning;
- Adoption of regulations, standards and criteria that can be used and evaluated;
- Strengthening of independent institutions, such as the method of electing members of Planning Commissions, according to which at least one member would be elected on the proposal of reference professional organizations;
- Introduction of mandatory architectural competitions for all buildings financed with public funds, as the only way to ensure the quality of architectural solutions;
- Raising the level of quality of public buildings through the amendment of the Law on Public Procurement according to which the design competition is part of the procedure in which the winning solution is awarded a design contract and not awards;
- Last year, the law on public procurement was changed, where one of the main changes refers to the decision that, among others, the principle of the lowest price cannot be applied when awarding contracts for architectural services. We hope that this decision will be specified in the foreseeable future by the development of guidelines for the implementation of public procurement of architectural services and that this document will include the Office for Public Procurement and the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia as well as the interested business architectural community;
- It is necessary to amend the Law according to which the consent of the architect on the constructed condition of the building was mandatory before the use permit, which would strengthen the status and importance of architects in the procedures related to the construction of the building;
- We need education on the built environment and exchange of knowledge, that is, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the introduction of an optional subject on space and architecture for elementary school students;
NAS – The first national strategic document for architecture is the result of the joint work of the relevant ministry and representatives of the architectural profession, and let it be only the first step, on the demanding path to the final handshake as a sign of full cooperation.
Welcome to the first architectural national forum. It is up to us to be just one in a series of future ones, on the road to cooperation between the profession and administrative institutions, which should result in the construction of a new status and integrity of the profession.
And to close the circle of thoughts – the starting point and origin of this cooperation should be the common awareness that as much as we build our environment, it also builds the future of our society.”
The attendees were then addressed online by Ruth Schagemann, President of the Council of Architects of Europe.
After the welcoming speeches, the representatives of the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure – architects Nebojša Antešević, Božana Lukić and Tijana Pejić, presented the vision and goals of the National Architectural Strategy, with reference to relevant data on the architectural profession and activity in Serbia, as well as the publication Architecture for Us , in which the strategy is presented concisely and illustratively.
In the desire that NAF, in addition to decision-makers and creators of public policies, as well as prominent representatives of the profession in Serbia, will be magnified by the presence of foreign guests who will convey to us positive experiences in the implementation of architectural policies, Mr. Ignacy Carnicero, General Secretary, addressed the attendees through the Embassy of Spain. Secretariat for Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture at the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda of the Kingdom of Spain. Since Spain recently passed the Law on the Quality of Architecture, and that Mr. Carnicero is one of the most responsible for its adoption, he spoke about the experiences of Spain in the creation of architectural policy, especially in the context of guidelines for high-quality architecture and the built environment, the role of the public sector in setting exemplary examples of architecture, the establishment of the House of Architecture of Spain, the role of the Council for Architecture and other important aspects regulated by the Law on the Quality of Architecture.
Mr. João Bento, in front of the Lisbon School of Architecture of the University of Lisbon, had an online presentation dedicated to the creation of architectural policies in Europe that promote high-quality architecture and building culture (through the presentation of a panorama of actors, policies and tools).
Topic of the first panel: Platform for implementation of the National Architectural Strategy. Moderator Ksenija Lalović (Faculty of Architecture Belgrade), panelists Vladimir Lojanica (Dean of the Faculty of Architecture Belgrade), Vladan Đokić (Rector of the University of Belgrade), representative of the Ministry of Culture and Slobodan Jović (curator at the Museum of Applied Art), while Bojan Linardić ( director of the Institute for Spatial Development Croatia).
Topic of the second panel: Architectural profession (regulatory and institutional framework). Moderator Predrag Milutinović (UAS/ASAP/ULUPUDS/office “MAPA studio”), panelists Vesna Cagić Milošević (UAS/professor, Faculty of Architecture – University of Belgrade), Žaklina Gligorijević (Association of Architects of Serbia – representative in the Council of Architects of Europe/ŽAD), Ilja Mikitišin (DAB / “4Mind” bureau) and Danilo Dangubić (ASAP / “DADA” bureau), and Vlado Krajcar (Secretary General of the Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning, Slovenia) gave an online presentation.
Topic of the third panel: Architectural activity and practice (quality and value of architectural services). Panelists: Milan Đurić (UAS / Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade / bureau “Dva studio”), Anja Ivana Milić (“Arhipro” / ŽAD), Bojan Zabukovec (ar “ZAP” / ASAP), Vladimir Đorić (ASAP / bureau “Zabriskie” ) and Đorđe Mojović (Program for urban development).
Attachment – news on the Gradnja.rs portal at the linku.
Watch the video from the event at the linku.