The Scientific Council of the Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia advocates for the preservation and reconstruction of protected immovable cultural properties, specifically the ensembles of the General Staff and the Ministry of Defence by architect Nikola Dobrović, and the Belgrade Fair compound by architect Milorad Pantović and engineers Branko Žeželj and Milan Krstić. These architectural-urban entities are of inestimable importance to the culture, history, and identity of Belgrade and Serbia.
The position of the Scientific Council of the Institute for Architecture and Urbanism of Serbia (IAUS) is based on its tradition as a scientific research organisation, which, since its founding in 1954, has been addressing topics significant not only to the fields of architecture, urbanism, and spatial planning, but also to society as a whole and to the formation and preservation of its cultural identity.
EXPLANATION:
The Institute places particular importance on the protection of modern architectural and construction heritage. One of the primary goals and tasks of the Institute is: “to study and address specific problems in the fields of architecture and urbanism, such as: … studying recent architectural heritage insofar as it relates to contemporary architecture; …”
Some of the most significant works of modern Serbian architecture have been created within the Institute. Notably, architectural objects and architectural-urban entities declared immovable cultural properties stand out. Among the contemporary architecture projects designed at the Institute, the following are protected: Block 30 in New Belgrade, as part of the Central Zone of New Belgrade, by architect Prof. Uroš Martinović; the Memorial House of the Battle of Sutjeska in Tjentište by architect Prof. Ranko Radović; the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade by architect Ivo Kurtović; and the Cerak Vinogradi housing estate by architects Prof. Darko Marušić, Milenija Marušić, and Dr. Nedeljko Borovnica, which is protected as a spatial cultural-historical entity.
Numerous other modern architectural-urban works created within IAUS, protected as immovable cultural properties or planned for protection as valuable objects and entities of the Modern era, are under prior protection. Nikola Dobrović, a giant of Serbian and world architecture, also created some of his works within IAUS, where he worked on projects such as the Institute for Physiotherapy and Medical Rehabilitation in Igalo and the Nikola Tesla Institute in New Belgrade.