IO 26 – Architectural Gedankenexperiment or: How shall we live after Covid?

Presented design is a result of a discussion led between three professors and three master students at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad (Republic of Serbia), during the few weeks in summer semester of schoolyear 2020/2021.

Recognizing the pressure that was put by pandemic restrictions on architectural community, presented design explores the ideas of biophilia at their most further extent, introducing different types of habitats in the existing building in the city of Novi Sad. Research also tackles the field of establishing new boundaries between public and private, while aiming to offer further possibilities for implementation of sanitary and safety measures. A park and a pond that have been developed inside of an multifamily building, put a different kind of perspective on what are the goals of architectural design today and could be tomorrow.

Technically speaking, existing building has been incised or carved in order to keep the number of 10 apartment units, while radically changing their structure and functional organization (eg. possibility of working from home, double-sided ventilation, sanitary entry zones), with special focus on connecting each one with park areas inside the building. To achieve this, special attention has been paid to the ways natural sunlight penetrates interior space, which led to the solution of 7 out of 10 units being designed as two-story, mostly organized as studios or one bedroom apartments. Net area of apartments is around 850 m2, while interior park areas take around 420 m2.

Jelena Atanacković Jeličić