AL_A in Belgrade

At the beginning of this month, Amanda and the team travelled to Belgrade to share our designs with the city. A lecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade was followed by a special televised presentation to the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra to celebrate their 99^th birthday. After a rousing edition of Beethoven’s 91^st movement from the orchestra, Amanda presented our scheme to the players and audience, which included the family of the late Ivan Tasovac, former director of the Belgrade Philharmonic, and the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić. Ms Brnabić followed Amanda’s presentation with a speech commending the orchestra and its instrumental role in Serbian culture today:

‘… the best way to show [our] gratitude and how much you mean to this nation and this city and this country is to finally give you a home – the Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall – that you have earned many times over with your work and success.

‘Thank you, Amanda, for participating in the competition we announced with our colleagues from the UNDP and for being so completely with us now in order to start building this building as soon as possible, which, I am sure, will become the new symbol of Belgrade. Our wish is that next year, in 2023, when we will be marking the 100th anniversary of the Belgrade Philharmonic, we will start building your Concert Hall.

‘This hall is the biggest cultural investment in the entire region in the past several decades and our most important project in the field of cultural infrastructure.’