d o  c o _ m o  m o_ international working group for documentation and conservation d o of building, places and schemes of the modern movement

Minimum Documentation Fiche 2003

composed by national/regional working party of: Do•.co.mo.mo c o Serbia _ m o

0.1 PICTURE OF BUILDING/SITE

• m o _ србија

0.1. Depicted item Politika building

0.2. Source Miloš Jurišić collection

0.3. Date 1970s

Local data base code

ADM-RS-011-b-0001

1. IDENTITY OF THE BUILDING d o 1.1.• Current c name o _ m o • m o _ србија3 Building of newspaper house ‘Politika’

1.2. Variant or former/original name 4 Newspaper publishing house ‘Politika’

1.3. Street name and number 5 29 Makedonska Street (additional facilities – Cetinjska Street, Despota Stefana Boulevard)

1.4. Town 6 Belgrade

1.5. Municipality 7 Stari grad

1.6. Zip code 8 11000

1.7. Country 9 Republic of Serbia (built in SFRY)

1.8. GPS 10 44°48'56.7"N 20°27'53.1"E

1.9. Classification/typology 11 ADM - Business building

1.10. Protection status and date 12 Facility has been under previous protection

2. HISTORY OF THE BUILDING

2.1. Original draft/purpose 13 At the Second Male Gymnasium in Makedonska 29, in the period from 1961 to 1968 the new building with the auxiliary facilities of the oldest newspaper publishing house "Politika" (NIP) was built. The main building-tower of 17 floors was erected with the aim to fit the state-of-the-art printing technology. The building was actually an extension of the existing capacity of a newspaper publishing company that was mainly related to printing, editorial offices, dressing rooms and manipulative spaces, right next to the old Politika building, at Makedonska 31. The first time, under the roof of this newspaper house, the largest industrial building was equipped in modern machines and devices. The great professional challenge for the designers was to reconcile the new building with the original Politika facilities on the same plot, as well as narrow and dense terrain. 14 2.2. Dates: order/completion Until 1948, the NIP was still a joint stock company. That same year, an act on its nationalization and transition to state property, as well as all industrial enterprises in the country, arrived. During this period, the list saw the greatest rise, when a large rotary printing machine arrived by the Nazis, which was taken by the Nazis to Zagreb and used during the war, arrived in Belgrade. It was the beginning of work on the planning of a new building because the existing space for the editorial staff and the workers was d o •insufficiently c o large _ for them ambitions o of the• future m biggest opublishing _ house србија in the Balkans. At the meeting of the Workers' Council in 1960, the decision was made to build a new building in Makedonska Street, next to the old one, and a new printing house with the most modern technique.

2.3. Architectural and other designers 15 Authors are Ugljesa Bogunovic and Slobodan Janjic

2.4. Others associated with the building 16 In the atmosphere of the development of fascism in Europe in the late 1930s, the difficult period for the independent Yugoslav newspaper Politika followed, which, as anti-fascist, had an even more prominent role in socio-political life. At the beginning of the Second World War, the NIP stopped working, successfully finding a way to avoid the pressure of the Nazis to be in their service. House of the founder of the newspaper Politika Vladislav Sl.Ribnikar (today the Museum on July 4th in Belgrade) was the place of gathering members of the anti-fascist movement. On July 4, 1941, a political meeting of the Politburo of the CPC KPJ was held on which the decision was made to establish the anti-fascist movement of the people of Yugoslavia against the occupiers. He, together with Mosa Pijada, founded the Partisan Telegraph Agency Tanjug. At the Second Session of AVNOY in 1943, he was elected Vice President of the National Committee of National Liberation of Yugoslavia, whose president was Tito. During the war, a group of "Politika" workers kept the remaining equipment from the printing press in hidden places. In 1945, Tito formed a temporary national government headed by Vladislav Sl. Ribnikar who became Minister of Education. Ribnikar remained the director and president of the joint stock company, which legally existed until 1948, when the act on nationalization and the transition of "Politika" into state ownership followed. Then all the industrialized countries were nationalized companies in the country, thus eliminating the former forms of "ownership" and "shareholder" relations. The new concept and quality of the contents of the Politika paper as well as the work of prominent figures of Yugoslav society contributed to its great readiness and reputation throughout the country. The complex of buildings that included the new building was a great construction venture within the building of monumental buildings in the historical core of the capital of the SFRY (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). On this occasion, NIP "Politika" was awarded the Order of Merit for the people with a golden star. In addition to numerous daily newspapers and magazines of the world standard, Politika newspaper founded in 1990 the same media house, radio and television, which was put out in 2007. In 2002 it also received a business partner - the German media company WAZ (West Allgemeine Zeitung), with whom it founded the PNM (Politika newspaper and magazines). Today, in the building in Makedonska 29, besides PNM, there is Komercijalna Bank.

2.5. Significant alliterations in dates 17 At the site of the former Second Grammar School building that was bombed in World War II, 1961-68. a new building was built for the newspaper company and the printing press. In 1989, two panoramic elevators on the eastern facade were completed, so the metal fire stairway was removed, and a new fire staircase was added to the western facade. Above the lift, on the last floor, two more departments were added, for the transmitter of the former RTV "Politika", which is currently not in operation, and the metal antennas.

2.6. Current purpose 18 Komercijalna bank and Politika newspaper and magazines d o • c o _ m o • m o _ србија 2.7. Current condition 19 The original appearance of the exterior is completely preserved. The interior has been changed and adapted to the work of Komercijalna Banka in most of the building on Makedonska Street. Other, auxiliary facilities in the complex are also preserved but in poor condition.

3 DESCRIPTION

3.1. General description 20 The building in Makedonska 29 is the highest building in the business complex "Politika" and its surroundings, 65m high. Annexes, from the south to the first floor, from the east and west to the fifth floor, from the north to the second floor, all seen from the Macedonian street, are attached to the high building (tower). With annexes, a high building (tower) constitutes one building block. In other words, it consists of horizontal and vertical cubes (towers) with editorial offices, and lower chambers in the courtyard part of the parcel with drive printing facilities, functionally connected in one whole. Of the total useful area of 20,000 m², one half of the waste is on the printing press, and the other on the editorial office. The editorial section is oriented to Makedonska ulica, and the printing part on the next parallel street of Despot Stefan. Viewed from Makedonska ulica, the building has three levels of cellar, and only one from the yard. The five-story horizontal cube is shaped like a low elongated shape that continues along the side of the adjacent objects with the height of its lateral annexes, thus making the transition between the tower and the inherited ambience of the street. Vertical cube is a tower that represents a freestanding structure of 12 to 17 floors. The ground is resolved as a unique continuous glass surface that extends over the entire length of the horizontal tract. In the interior, a spacious terraced hall is characteristic of a glass wall opposite the main entrance through which it was possible to observe the work of rotation in the hall. The entrance hall includes two staircases with elevators, two for administration and one for operation. All horizontal connections between rooms are provided directly or in corridors. The top seventeenth floor is a terrace for seating and sightseeing of the city panorama.

3.2. Construction 21 The high part - the tower and the low part (annexes) of the building were built in a reinforced skeleton constructive system with monolithic cross-armored ceilings. In the high part of the building, horizontal pressures are entrusted to vertical, side and hanging façade elements. The processing of visible areas of the printing house is made of brick and concrete. The vertical structure (tower) is coated with parapets with aluminum prefabricated façade elements, which is one of the rare examples of the wall-curtain at the beginning of the sixties of the 20th century in Belgrade.

3.3. Context 22 "Politika" has been erected in the oldest core of the city, among various architectural styles and objects of mostly residential character, on the ground with inherited urban layers and a historical context. With its pure concept and connective elements it did not disturb the ambience of Makedonska ulica, but it has enriched it with its modernity and thus became one of the urban renegades of the city to this day. It occupies a significant place among the achievements of contemporary post-war architecture of Belgrade regarding the application of new materials and constructive systems. d o • c o _ m o • m o _ србија 4. EVALUATION

4.1. Technical value 23 For the first time in Belgrade architecture, prefabricated metal sheeting from pressed aluminum panels in the form of wall curtains was applied. Designers tended to have plastic facade effects with a single facade as well as a high technical level of a constructive detail solution that was in line with the European standards at the time. The basic composition of the building is the relation between the horizontal and the vertical tract, implemented through the application of the high technical level of the constructive solution. Such a composition was conditioned by the position of the object located in a series of facade canvases of the street. By simply pulling the window tape into a flat concrete frame construction and with a strong push of the parapet, a new quality of the wall curtain in the external solution was obtained. Here the facade of the wall-curtain wall has shown all its functional and design possibilities as a modern architectural product which in Belgrade during the period of large-scale renovation was an undertaking of great importance.

4.2. Social value 24 The oldest daily newspaper in this region, after the Second World War, was one of the largest and purposeful buildings in the Balkans. The path of development was not easy, the most difficult moments of the Serbian and Yugoslav society were overcome by the pre-war, war, post-war and modern transit times marked by the Balkans in the 20th century. Regardless of the changes in the ownership structure and the unstable economic and social circumstances, it has given the best newspaper editions with its work. It was these values of the NIPs that were initially initiated by the state in its ascent to start building one of the most modern business facilities, specialized and equipped for the work of the oldest newspapers and then television companies.

4.3. Cultural and aesthetic value 25 Apart from its technical values, the Politics Building is a symbol of the development of modern Serbian journalism. He became the leading list of intellectual readers as well as the entire civil society at the time, thanks to his founder and vice president of modern journalism in Serbia, Vladislav Ribnikar, whose bust is located on the ground floor of the building, the work of the Serbian sculptor Djordje Jovanovic from 1940. Among the print technology in the "Politika" building the place belongs to the printing machine, which is an exhibit, and is now in the entrance hall. Its construction in style and consecration is a hallmark of the time and political ideology of the regime, which has strived to follow the rapid development of modern architecture in terms of business buildings such as the Milan Pireli building, Nervi and Pontius, with state-of-the-art technology equipment from Switzerland and Germany. The aesthetic value is reflected in the geometricity of the form, the dynamics of volume, and the application of modern materials that point to the emergence of technicalism in the architecture of Belgrade, a principle that later developed more in domestic architectural practice. An entire industry of standardized forms has developed on this idea in which architects have introduced elements of their individuality.

4.4. Historical value 26 The "Politika" building in Makedonska 29 belongs to engineering structures that were built in all the metropolises of the world in the fifties and sixties, and in time they became symbols of "new" modern architecture and engineering. The complex of buildings between the streets of Macedonia, Cetinje and Boulevard despot Stefan, connected in one building and technological unit, was the place where the industry of newspapers d o •and c publications o _ developed. m Ito was a• building m project o in the_ framework србија of raising monumental buildings in the capital of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which decommissioned two decades later. Today, the archive kept in the "Politika" building represents a living history of Serbian society in all its segments, such as a signpost in its study.

4.5. General assessment 27 The building of the newspaper "Politika" is one of the first business buildings of the type of cloud-shaped building in the central city core. It occupies a significant place in the opus of the architect Uglješa Bogunović and Slobodan Janjić who received the Belgrade October Award for Best Achievements in the Field of Art and Science for the project of the new building "Politika" in 1969. The prize was awarded on the basis of the decision of the Jury for Architecture and Urbanism with the following composition: Prof.arh. Bogdan Nestorovic (president of the jury), arch. Branislav Jovin, Prof. Dr. Vojislav Korac and Arch. Mihajlo Mitrovic. Ugljesa Bogunovic is a laureate of two October, two republican awards of the "Borba" newspaper, as well as the Grand Prize for architecture of the Association of Architects of Serbia - a recognition awarded by the collegium winner of the same award and the Association of Architects of Serbia. The complex of buildings between the streets of Macedonia, Cetinje and Boulevard despot Stefan, connected in one building and technological unit, was the place where the industry of newspapers and publications developed. It was a building project in the framework of raising monumental buildings in the capital of the SFRY (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). On this occasion, NIP "Politika" was awarded the Order of Merit for the people with a golden star. From the point of view of preserving the cultural heritage, the stylistic, technological and functional features of the new building with auxiliary facilities, they confirm the architectural values as well as the economic and social rise in the first decades after the Second World War and the return to the author's architecture. Simultaneously, the continuous existence of the Politika newspaper at this site points to its cultural and historical significance.

5. DOCUMENTATION

5.1. Principal reference 28 1.D. Milivojevic, Politika- the witness of our era, Belgrade 1984

2. Documentation of ‘Politika’ add.

3. Technical project for the first building of ‘Politika’ 31 Makedonska Street, Historical archive of Belgrade (IAB), VI-9-1922

4. Technical project for new building ‘Politika’ in 20 Makedonska Street, (IAB)ТD F 115-1- 1961

5. NIN 1969: 13; Politika 1969.

6. G.S.Bogunovic, Architectonic encyclopaedia of XIX and XX century, Architects II, Belgrade 2005.

7. М.Perovic, Serbian architecture of XX century, Belgrade 2003.

5.2. Visual material in the attachment 29 d o 5.3.• rapporteur/date c o _ m o • m o _ србија30 Ivana Veskovic, art hist. / 2017