MILA  NIKOLIĆ  ARCHITECT

A City Museum Open towards the City

The call of the architectural competition for the reconstruction of the building in Resavska 40b and its conversion in the Museum of the City of Belgrade virtually ignored the city to which the museum is dedicated. It placed the museum in the cage of the existing structure. The idea of ​​this project is to break the walls and the formality of the former Military Academy, suitable more for a War Museum or a Museum of Peace due to possible multiple curatorial levels - of the architectural typology, the history of military education, the urban planning and the symbolism of the neighbouring complex of the Military Headquarters.

Therefore, the project develops along the following lines:

• Info- and lightscape towards the city and within the museum as a "city within the city";

• The urban character of the spaces;

• Inner courtyards as a continuous park with sculpture gardens that change throughout the year;

• Two floating rings od exhibition halls and offices intended as ephemeral interventions, a removable sign of the contemporary condition;

• Transformability of the moving modules and "sliding" spaces.

The architecture thus supports and enables the new curatorial practice. The project envisions:

• New exhibition spaces for new exhibition formats (black box, etc.);

• Multiple narratives: the city, the history, the architecture, the history of the building;

• Multiple routes of visit = choice (thematically, chronologically).