‘SPEECH:’ is published for the third time, which speaks of a certain consistency, especially in these difficult times. The third issue is as voluminous and rich in material as the two previous ones, and is also devoted to one topic - in this case, it is formulated as “square”. Although the topic should be understood more broadly - these are public spaces within the city, forgotten by modernism, revived by postmodernism and more and more popular now.
Needless to say, the city squares in this issue of ‘SPEECH:’ have been studied comprehensively: historically, typologically and geographically, but special attention is paid to modern trends in rethinking the problem of urban spaces.
The magazine is published twice a year, and each time its presentation is accompanied by a lecture by the “hero of the issue”, an interview with whom is included in the next issue. This time Boris Podrekka became the hero. This architect was born in Belgrade, lives in Vienna, and works in eight European countries. According to Podrekka's own words, he considers public spaces as the central theme of his work.
Boris Podrekka began his story with why public spaces are needed at all: after all, "you can fill everything with asphalt and walk on it in Italian makasins from house to house." According to the architect, during the economic crisis, this topic is more relevant than ever - now the time has come when people should remember about personal meetings and face-to-face conversations, and the task of architects is to "get people out of cars and make them stay on the street." Podrekka cited the example of Boston, where a major new housing project (300,000 homes), for the first time in US history, involves the simultaneous creation of public space.
According to the architect, now in many countries of central Europe, from 2% to 4% of the budget allocated for new construction, investors spend on the arrangement of public space near the building. The state encourages them to do this through a variety of partnership programs. In addition, some cities spend between thirty-four and sixty percent of their budget on redeveloping new and reorganizing neglected urban spaces. And the architect spoke about his own experience, mainly European.
Boris Podrekka works with various, sometimes very ancient European squares. He imagines their history as "multi-layered": monuments to confectioners, fires of the Inquisition, city holidays …
Working for the Italian city of Trieste, in which he spent his childhood, Boris Podrekka drew attention to the fact that historically this seaside city was "cut off" from the water (by the way, the problem is typical for many cities that "turn away" from their rivers and coasts). The architect decided to fix this and "turn" the city to the sea, to remind the inhabitants of the water. So floating buildings appeared in Trieste, and tiles with verses about the sea were laid on the pavement of the main square.
In Verona, Podrecca organized the main street of the city - Via Mazzini, which connects four city squares in one chain. One of these squares was trading, the other was the Jewish ghetto destroyed by Mussolini, the third was dedicated to the craft for which the city has always been famous. Via Mazzini in Verona was reconstructed in collaboration with archaeologists who found the old Roman walls - now they can be seen through the "windows" in the pavement.
The squares that Podrekka reconstructs, before his intervention, often serve as parking lots, the asphalt on them is broken and the environment around looks just as sad. For example, in one of the cities of Styria, a former parking lot was turned back into a square around which shops are located. The lighting solution of this area is also interesting: the transition from daylight to dusk is carried out gradually, the backlight starts to light up at first pale, then brighter and brighter.
The square is just one type of open urban space. Boris Podrekka had to work with more complex types of public spaces, not burdened with historical memories. According to the architect, in such cases a simple redevelopment or landscape design will not help; a real "surgery" is needed here. As it turned out, under the word "surgery" Podrekka understands the restoration of space in an artistic way, as, for example, does the artist Katrin Miller, scattering seeds of various plants across the territory: they grow and create an unpredictable pattern, or as the Dutch do, imprinting patterns on the asphalt with gauze soaked in special solution.
Naples has the largest underground spaces in Europe. Twelve world-class architects were invited to build them. Podrekka got the site where the bay used to be. Then they covered her up and made an artificial square with an amphitheater. Beneath this square, Podrekka designed a five-tiered complex with a wavy floor pattern reminiscent of the water that used to be here.
In Venice, the city where one of the branches of Boris Podrekka's bureau is located, the architect created a square out of water, which, according to the architect, was his cherished dream. For eight years, according to his project, the Museum of Modern Art was built in Venice - a public space with exhibition halls on the upper floors. Brand new space in an old baroque building.
The fate of squares in the 20th century is not easy: totalitarianism arranged its processions on them, modernism (as if in response) forced cars and turned them into parking lots, postmodernism revived, but what to do with open urban spaces in a democratic society, what is their purpose - is it just tourism and trade? This appears to have yet to be resolved. Boris Podrekka, for example, is sure that the development and restoration of urban public spaces is the key to restoring society after the collapse of the global financial system. Who knows who knows…
