Hala Concrete ("Concrete Hall") is a concrete warehouse on the banks of the Sava River, one of the few industrial buildings that have survived there from the interwar period. On the instructions of an international competition in which Fujimoto shared the first place with a team of Serbian architects, it was to be reconstructed into a multifunctional center that would link the river and the center of Belgrade.
The implementation of the project should become one of the measures for the reconstruction of the river port, located very close to the Kalemegdan park and the Belgrade fortress standing on a hill - the historical core of the city.
As required, Fujimoto preserved the volume of the warehouse stretched along the water, with its long "portico": there will be a cafe and a restaurant. Above and behind it there is a "whirlpool" of many tape-ramps, which the architect himself called "a floating cloud". A new square and an open exhibition space will be arranged in its center, commercial areas will be located closer to the hillside.
Bridges will connect Concrete Hala with the surrounding area, underground parking and transport hubs (river ferry, tram and bus).
N. F.