At the construction forum aquarium in Belgrade I will enter., the activists warned that 28 trees will be removed and that "not all construction is progress", while the author of the project said that they worked "ethically responsibly" and that it "will be transplanted".
The forum "At the confluence of two rivers under the cranes" was held in a crowded hall of the Dereta area, and was organized by the Initiative Beograd remains.
"We have come to a document stating that 28 mature trees will be removed at the site of the Aquarium at Usce. Not all construction is progress," said the representative of that initiative, Đorđe Miketić.
He said that "the public interest is at risk in Usce", because "construction is planned on the territory of the park Exspo piers, two new museums, philharmonic building, gondola station".
Miketić, who was the forum's moderator, also pointed out that the activists will supervise the implementation of this project.
He called on the professional and civil public to get involved to a greater extent in the discussions about the projects which, as he stated, are shaping the future of Belgrade.
The trees will be transplanted.
Author of the Aquarium project, architect Branislav Mitrović pointed out that the trees will be transplanted.
"There will be no cutting down of trees. The aquarium is purposefully positioned in a place where the dominant meadow area is," said Mitrović.
He added that this project is not a project of a private investor, but, as he pointed out, is a space that is open for public use.
He pointed out that his author's solution provides answers to the conditions of the Detailed Regulation Plan that was adopted in 2019.
"We tried to design a facility that will be unobtrusively integrated into the greenery. The aquarium is buried in the ground," he said.
According to him, the highest point of the building is ten meters, and according to the plan, the prescribed height was 20 meters.
"We worked professionally and ethically," said Mitrović and emphasized that the idea was to preserve the green look of the park from the Branko bridge to the former Jugoslavia Hotel.
Harmful Detailed Regulation Plan
Architect and urban planner Marko Jakšić pointed out that the quality of Mitrović's solution is not in question, "but the guidelines given by the harmful Detailed Regulation Plan".
"We are not attacking the author's solution, but we are attacking the detailed regulation plan. The decision to develop the plan is problematic, it was made without the participation of citizens," said Jakšić.
He pointed out that the citizens are against construction, and that he, as an urban planner, thinks "that construction can take place, but not in the place provided for by the existing plan."
"The facilities must be relocated outside the park plot, next to the SIV building," said Jakšić.
Architect Ana Mitić-Radulović pointed out that the detailed regulation plan, which governs the area of Park Ušće, was "adopted in the shadow of other events in 2019".
"Five years later, a competition for a design solution was announced. Those who participated in the competition gave legitimacy to that harmful plan," Mitić-Radulović said.
She stated that the competition was problematic because, as she pointed out, there were no landscape architects in the competition committee, and it was about construction on the territory of the park.
The president of the committee that chose the best project for the aquarium, Ivan Rašković, pointed out that the old idea of Usce being a museum space dates back, as he stated, to the time of Nikola Dobrović, the designer of the General Staff building.
"The detailed regulation plan envisaged four basic contents in that space: the extension of the 21st century museum, the Natural History Museum, the Ferris wheel and the aquarium," he said.
He pointed out that the architect's job is to design in accordance with the planning documents.
Source: Beta
