Not a few experts in the National Pavilion for the Expo recognize the hanging lamp "Metropolis" by the English designer Chris Jackson. One of them is the architect Slobodan Maldini
National Pavilion of Serbia at Expo 2027 in Belgrade, whose design was entrusted to the Belgrade studio Artbeat Lab, will be an impressive building with 8 floors and up to 6 underground floors, on an area of 30.000 square meters.
The facility will have a multifunctional space, an exhibition space, educational facilities, as well as administrative and technical rooms. The design of the pavilion, which is based on movement and spaciousness, should be a recognizable symbol of the exhibition.
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Not a few experts recognize it as the hanging lamp "Metropolis" by the English designer Chris Jackson. One of them is architect Slobodan Maldini, executive director of the Association of Serbian Architects.
Maldini proves with a photograph that the presented project of the National Pavilion for Expo 2027 and the hanging lamp by Chris Jackson are similar in terms of shape, composition, texture, and color. Of course, he agrees that "it is not possible to determine whether the idea for such a sculptural edifice came from the design of the lamp."
He reminds that this project was not selected in a public architectural competition, because the state did not even announce it.
"The conceptual architectural solution was obtained through a public procurement announced by the Ministry of Finance, i.e. through a public call for services for the design of the pavilion," says Maldini.
After the nine days that the invitation lasted, "only one, not even three bidders came forward. It was an obviously well-informed candidate: Belgrade's Artbeat lab founded in December 2023, with only one employee - Dušan Jovović, a painter and graphic designer. The public procurement was not conducted by a professional association, but by the Ministry of Finance, which is surprising. 9,92 million dinars have been allocated to the winner," says Maldini.
Pricelist
He also adds that "the construction of this pavilion will cost 4,68 billion dinars, that 1800 million euros were paid to an ignorant young non-referential company from Novi Sad for the interior of the 3,5-square-meter exhibition hall, that 4,5 million euros were paid to the chief architect of the Expo, who has a protocol function, for royalties, and that 15 million euros were paid for marketing".
There are many questions and doubts about the correctness of the procedure in the realization of this project, he says, but "first of all, the authorities would have to explain why the work of obvious architectural design was assigned to a limited liability company created only about half a year before the call for tenders, without strong references for this type of work, which above all does not have a single employed architect or construction engineer licensed for this type of architectural design."
And yet, despite numerous doubts, "Serbia will be represented at Expo 2027, in all likelihood, by a fabulously expensive replica of Chris Jackson's 'Metropolis' lamp design," according to architect Maldini.
He also claims that Jackson's "Metropolis" is offered starting at 200 euros in the catalogs of sellers of designed interior equipment.
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