Belgrade Turistic Info Media Centre

University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade, Serbia

Project idea

Belgrade's Info and Media project is located in the Savamala area, near the river bank. The urbanization of this part of the city begins in the 18th century, and recently the site is back in focus because of the new Belgrade Waterfront urban project, , which begins construction in 2014. Due to the complex nature of the site and the program and the character of the environment, this project overcomes its dual appearance, representing a combination of past and future of that part of the city. When designing the project, the desire was to retain the context and spirit of the former Savamala as a place known as the Little Market. Near the location of the facility is the Sava River, which creates a special environment, which led to the idea of the emergence of a "shipping container" on the object itself. Given the context in which the facility would be located in the future, a representative white fiber-cement façade that fits into the environment has been retained. The white facade represents the "center of gravity" of the object on which the "containers" land, which is why the massive form is retained. Considering the function of the object, the form stands out with its authenticity with the desire to attract as many visitors as possible. Large glass surfaces open the object to the outside. The form of the object arose from the rational disposition of the object in the field, the need to satisfy the functional aspect conditioned by the task, but also to provide constructive security for such an object to exist. The combination of a sleek white façade and a blue rusty profiled sheet metal container is precisely the joint that represents the current context of the location of the project.

Project description

The freestanding building is located on a parcel of 1292m2 and is located within construction lines of relative elevation varying between + 75m and + 76m. Three pedestrian access and one car access are envisaged. The parcel is trapezoidal in shape. The floor of the building is P + 2, with one level of the underground floor intended for parking vehicles and service rooms. The height of the highest roof is + 12.94m. The percentage of vacant and green areas on the parcel is 57%, while the percentage of green areas in direct contact with the ground (without underground parts of the buildings) is 26%. The ground floor elevation is 0.2m higher than the zero elevation (access road corner). Within the underground floor, 20 parking spaces for employees are foreseen (2 for disabled persons). The main axis of the plot is oriented east-west, and the object is accessed from the west (from the side of the Sava Quay), the main entrance is to the north (access from the pedestrian street) and from the east (from the Herzegovina street) where there is also a pedestrian and car access - ramp.
The building has a total gross area of 2118.22m2. Within the facility, several functional units have been designed. On the ground floor there is a main hall with an information center with physical and electronic security of the building, a large lecture room and a cafe with access to the garden. The main unit, which occupies the largest area of the building, is a showroom for occasional themed exhibitions located on the first floor of the building. The upstairs also houses a smaller presentation room, sales space and offices. Both the ground floor and the first floor have a toilet. The floor is accessed by a main staircase or an elevator, and the building is also equipped with a fire escape staircase within the concrete core. The second floor is exclusively the administrative part, which is also accessed by staircase and an elevator. All technical rooms are located in the basement of the building, as well as the substation. The basement has direct access from Herzegovina Street by ramp. The roof of the building is not used. The containers on the first floor upstairs are connected by a glass hall to the rest of the building. The first floor also has 2 terraces with a glass canopy.

Technical information

The structural solution, derived from the preliminary design of the project, is a combination of concrete and steel construction. The structure of the object consists of a skeletal system in combination with reinforced concrete walls that are projected evenly over the surface of the base of the object, in two orthogonal directions. The walls of the reinforced concrete core extend the entire height of the building, from the foundation to the roof structure and have the function, in addition to accepting the gravitational load, to accept horizontal seismic forces. The wall thickness is 20 cm. The masonry walls of the building are made of brick blocks 20 cm thick and are accepted with reinforced concrete beams within the skeleton of the structure. The perimeter walls of the basement are of reinforced concrete, 20 cm thick, sized to accept the load from the active earth pressure, as well as the constant pressure in the field, while other reinforced concrete walls, where necessary, cover the height of the ground floor. The columns are 30/30 cm square in cross-section where the entire height are reinforced with statically required reinforcement. In addition to these pillars, there are also 50 / 50cm full height pillars that are also reinforced with statically required reinforcement. The basic structure of the building is made up of a basic counter plate, reinforced with the statically required reinforcement. The steel structure consists of steel beams and sloping steel columns that accept the load from the container. Their existing construction was used to make the containers stable and sturdy. The structure of the facility is designed to accommodate all constant, usable, climatic and seismic loads.
The exterior materialization of the building is made of white Swisspearl fiber cement boards, which contrast with the blue profiled metal sheet on the container facade. All fences on the terraces are glass. External materialization is made of the curtain wall above which is located a glass canopy. Steel V-shaped blue columns take on loads from containers, while gray steel V-shaped columns of smaller dimensions accept loads from canopy glass panels. The roofs are flat, impassable and their outer layer is gravel. All locksmith is metallic gray with epoxy polyester powder finish. On the containers around all the openings is a frame d = 30cm of smooth sheet. On top of oversight are tinplates that protects the walls from rain and snow.
When it comes to interior materialization, the part of the building with reinforced concrete columns have finishing made of concrete, and the finishing of the walls of brick blocks is a plaster d = 2cm. All container walls have profiled sheet metal finishes. The floor is industrial, Rhinol, in all parts of the buildings, except in containers where the flooring is wooden with Knauf Tecnosol spacers. The steps of the stairs are wooden, d = 5cm on a metal structure. The stair railing is made of hollow metal walls. All the locksmiths are also metallic, dark gray. Triplan glass partitions were used for the cabins in the toilets. The inner light walls have a plasterboard finish d = 1.25cm.
The facility is equipped with plumbing, sewage, thermo-technical installations (air-conditioning chamber, substation for heating, uninterruptible power supply), electrical installations (installations of high and low electricity, ie telephone, video surveillance, alarms, television, internet), lightning installations and grid-leak, fire installations, elevator installations and other mechanical installations. The water from the rain and snow is handled with rivulet(drainage pipe) that starts from the roof and goes through the building and into the ground.
When designing the building, care was taken that the layout of the building and the rooms in it were properly positioned for the best possible sunshine. All the supporting walls are protected by a thermal insulation layer d = 15cm, and the facade is layered with an air layer of 8cm. All locksmith are metal with epoxy-polyester powder finishes and thermal bridge interruptioning system and installed from floor to ceiling. The exterior locksmith has matching triple thermopane glass. Fireproof doors meet all fire protection requirements and have an appropriate standard for a particular fire resistance category. Warm bridges are made of glass to give the greenhouse effect and thus heat is accumulated.

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