Architect Mitrovic: Belgrade Aquarium is not a dolphinarium, but an institute connected to the Natural History Museum

Architect Branislav Mitrovic, the author of the winning design for the project to develop the Friendship Park in Usce in New Belgrade, stated that the planned aquarium was not a dolphinarium at all, but that it instead contained a scientific institute directly connected to the Natural History Museum.

– It is an institution that will even have a common map – Mitrovic told N1.

According to him, the aquarium and the Natural History Museum will occupy less than two percent of the total area of the park in Usce.

– Take, for example, Parc de la Villette in Paris, which is known for its cultural facilities. The area of that park is 55 hectares, and cultural facilities occupy 45% of its area. Usce Park has an area of 100 hectares, and the Natural History Museum and the aquarium will occupy 2% of the park’s area – Mitrovic said.

He added that it was similar not only with Parc de la Villette in Paris, but that something similar could also be seen in the Olympic Park in Seoul, Louisiana Park in Copenhagen and Ibirapuera Park in Sao Paulo.

Urban planner and architect Marko Jaksic told N1 that the irrigation of Parc de la Villette was not a good example, because an industrial zone used to be located in its place.

– Unlike Usce Park, the area of Parc de la Villette is an industrial zone from the nineteenth century. So, you are creating green spaces from a failed industrial complex and adding cultural facilities, while we already have a park in Usce and are building facilities from it – said Jaksic.

Jaksic pointed out that “decisions have already been made by adopting the harmful detailed regulation plan from 2019.”

– With an urban plan, you define what you will do, as well with the decision to adopt the urban plan. You define guidelines for what is allowed, what is not allowed, and some decisions have been made there. All these subsequent steps are just developments from those wrong decisions – stated Jaksic.

Mitrovic confirmed that Parc de la Villette had indeed been “created in order to repair the city,” but that in the 1960s, Usce had also been a “sandpit,” and that it was not uncommon anywhere in the world for cultural objects to appear on such green areas.

Asked to comment on the allegations that the beginning of the project’s implementation had been marked by sights of men dressed in black setting up fences at night and the police chasing citizens through the streets, Mitrovic said that it was “painful” for him.

– It is painful for anyone who participates in a process they believe in and which until that moment had some transparency. Of course, I am uncomfortable when such extreme misunderstandings arise. It seems to me that these antagonisms and misunderstandings in society have accumulated too much and then, unfortunately, this is reflected in the way we could see it in the media – stated Mitrovic.

Prirodnjački muzej Beograd

Natural History Museum Belgrade

Aquarium Ušće

Branislav Mitrović

Marko Jakšić

Ušće Park Belgrade