Being in one of the most important places of the city, project site had serious urban issues regarding parking places and car traffic. The goal was to create abundant parking spaces for cars and re-route them in a direction, which comes in harmony with the square itself. It is obvious, that the project had to reinforce existing axis coming from the “Municipal Assembly of Podgorica” to the “National Library of Radosav Ljumovic” and the shopping mall. The “Slobode” street acted as separation of the square and the mall, which has the potential of providing the square with multiple functions. That’s why we decided to make “Slobode” street pedestrian and let the space be bigger and more dynamic . By creating ramps on adjacent streets (“Novaka Miloseva and “Miljana Vukova”) and putting the road underground, the space is freed up from constant traffic. Adding underground parking on level – (4.2 m) solves constant problem of insufficient places(total number of parking lots -183 ) while freeing up corresponding streets.
From a conceptual point of view, our square represents “Montenegro” – “The black mountain”, that’s why the material of the square had to be something monumental, strong and dark-colored. Also, considering the fact that the project had to come In accordance with the sustainability principles , it had to be a natural. In this case, the best material to use is cobblestone. It is multifunctional material, is widely used in paving process, is durable and charming. During sunny weather it creates interesting texture through the square and has poetic value when being wet.
Since the public space should be available for every citizen/visitor of Podgorica, we developed multiple types of furniture for various kinds of users. In the square there are 3 typologies of chairs :“The chair for Students” , “The chair for Thieves”, “The chair for Dreamers”.
1st typology, “The chair for students” – consists of chair and a table arranged around the tree, in a circular shape. Since more and more people are becoming digital nomads and simply because people are nowadays working for homes, it is essential to put the kind of furniture around the square which will boost these kinds of activities.
2nd typology “ The chair for Thieves” is extremely ensures the flexibility of the square since it is easily transported by users. This kind of chairs gives the square ability to adopt to different kinds of scenarios, such as – fairs, gatherings, outdoor dates or even regular outdoor coffee breaks. Considering pandemic situation of the world today, it also makes the square safe place, since it makes it possible to maintain recommended distance even in the active public space.
3rd typology, “The dreamers chair”, is inspired by a chapter in the poem by Petar II Petrovich-Njegos “Mountain Wreath” – “Gorski vijenac”. In the poem, author speaks of the times when he sits beneath the clouds and gets lost in his thoughts.
“A hundred times I’ve gazed at floating clouds”
“Sailing as, phantom ships high off the sea,
And casting anchor on this mountain range!
Now here, now there I’ve watched them break away,
With darts of lightning and with rumblings dread,
And sudden roar of all the sky’s artillery!
A hundred times have I watched from these heights,
And quietly basked beneath the genial sun,
While lightnings flash’d and thunders peal’d below:
I saw and heard how they did rend the skies;
Downpours from heaven of most hostile hail
Robbed Mother Earth of her fertility”
Petar IIPetrovich Njegos, “The Mountain Wreath”
