Melanija Pavlovic, General Manager, JAF: Beautiful architecture and good materials, the puzzle of our world

Aesthetic materialism: the formula of the art of architecture, reduced to realistic reality - these are cubes, the puzzle of our world - because, everything we see around us, of which our city, our house and in it our bedroom, living room, are composed, it was once in a store: someone bought it and installed it, and someone else offered before that. And so, in the infinite relationship of those two parties, in the game of material exchange, the tangible world known to us was created.

An architect and business woman by education and vocation, Melanija Pavlović, is the immediate creator of this creative mixture of our reality. She is the general manager of the JAF company in Serbia, one of the leading importers and distributors of panel materials and timber, a company that supplies our furniture manufacturers and construction industry. It may not sound as pompous as the construction of the first Serbian-Chinese satellite, but it actually affects our environment to an unimaginable extent as one walks past the JAF halls in the industrial zone of Nova Pazova. Designers and suppliers: there must be some kind of feedback loop, driving everything. If we go back about twenty years into the recent past, we see poverty - of material, and of spirit? - demit or alubond facades are installed everywhere: there would be no third one. After that, architecture progressed - no matter what they say - but architects could not do it alone. Their creative play was, and always will be, looking for good material.

- Architects are curious, they work on themselves over the years, they educate themselves: they visit fairs, they look for new materials. This year, for example, I was also in Milan, at the Salone Del Mobile, and of course I`m not the only one. It is the largest furniture and design fair, and the Italians are still unsurpassed in this. It is inevitable that an architect is always looking for new materials. As traders, as someone who knows that he has to fight for his place in the market, we are also constantly trying to include new materials in the offer.

If, therefore, a person were to enter a new, well-equipped apartment in Belgrade, what would he find there, even if he came from Nova Pazova? - we ask the interlocutor, and she answers, proudly:

Even when approaching the building, a modern one from a new construction, the products from JAF`s offer are easily noticeable: first of all, it is the face of the building. Ventilating facades, which allow air to circulate, prevent moisture and save energy, are installed with a substructure, metal, and all this, with a final layer of compact board, are offered to customers in the JAF showroom. One can imagine: what his brutalist block, bare and raw concrete, would look like if he were covered with these panels, displayed like dresses in a boutique, in different tones, and isn`t it a store of imagination? And what is a compact disc, actually? Material compacted from at least 150 sheets of pressure paper. The creators of the material have developed innovative processes, only the imagination is the limit. One would say, by eye and by tapping, that it is simply a tree. Well, it is. The facade of the JAF is also covered with panels, this has been a trend for years, and from now on, when we see the building in those "wooden" tones, we will know that these are compact panels. A person learns something while living... as an architect (and besides, every Serb is a bit of an architect as well).

- There are also facade fiber cement panels, which are also a trend now. We do not offer ready-made doors, however, we supply the largest door manufacturers in Serbia. We also offer thermo-treated wood, Lunawood, very attractive, from a Finnish manufacturer, which is widely used for cottages and houses in the mountains. Such wood is specially processed so that it can withstand both the highest and the lowest temperatures, prevents the penetration of bugs and moths, and can be in different colors.

- So, for example, we recently introduced quartz as a material for kitchen countertops, we also have corian, a material for laboratories, for hospitals, in accordance with the HCCP standard, which is why it is used, even though it is "stronger" in price. Facades can also be made from it, so that it can be used as an external material for shops and storefronts. Worktops in public toilets are also made of corian, and the sanitary cubicles in them, in a shopping center or in an office building, are made of compact. If we wanted to single out what is used the most, of course, it is refined chipboard, when we make kitchens or closets, or bathroom furniture, there are plywoods, then MDF, which are the backs of the furniture, and we are specific in terms of veneer. Both architects and designers, and real furniture connoisseurs use wood in the interior, and use veneer. We press it onto mediapan, and get furniture fronts, and we also use it for interior wall coverings.

What we look at, what we walk on, what we eat on, what keeps us warm - these are all plate materials. Furniture manufacturers, carpenters, architects, designers, and construction companies buy from JAF. When our interlocutor took over the company in 2019, its turnover reached 10 million euros for the year: it ended last year with a volume of 19.4 million. That is almost a 100% increase - serious figures. How did Melanija Pavlović, as an architect, find herself in this material cosmos of money, balance - war for the market - because this is capitalism, and it must grow, constantly, there is no stagnation even for the sake of enjoying beauty - which, among other things, constantly gives us new and new materials - how did she get into it?

- And I didn`t go back to design, nor to urban planning, but I went my own way and I liked that. I am communicative, I thought, and a good businessman. I am ambitious by nature, apart from being curious like any architect, and I believed that one day I would be a great director. However, I realized that I couldn`t continue without a proper school: I kept hearing: "Well, you`re an architect, so you`re a dreamer", but in reality I was already in pure business, in figures, in sales, in pro-invoices and dispatch notes, import, export... And then I decided to enroll in MBA, master`s studies, completed them and after that my career accelerated. I worked for foreign companies, and they easily single you out as someone who has an engineering degree, plus an MBA. It is important for them that you know how to read numbers and prepare a budget.

She adds that she is satisfied with her business-upgrading architecture, she likes challenges, and new ones arise every year, and not only extraordinary challenges are demanding: the budget for next year needs to be prepared, and these days, they are also working on the company`s development strategy for the period from 2027 to 2031.

- And, therefore, we need to make a strategy for Nova Pazova, and for Nis, and for all of Serbia, then we need to introduce new products and everything else. But it`s interesting, and I wouldn`t change a thing. I am creative, I enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade with a ten in drawing. School was hard, not like it is now, because we studied for five years, and the first two years we hardly slept at the university, you come at 8 in the morning, you leave at 10 at night. And now, there they don`t have free drawing for the entrance exam, they take some general fashion test, all virtual, in software, while we were an old school of tinkerers who graduated from architecture, the way builders graduated from their university.

And one can indeed hear among our leading architects that their former school no longer offers classical engineering knowledge to a sufficient extent...

- That`s really a pity. I entered the faculty in 1990 and studied concrete construction for two semesters, we had four semesters of mathematics, design geometry, spatial planning, structural systems, wooden and metal constructions. I graduated as an engineer, today I am able to build a house, I also went through the materials, got acquainted with concrete additives, with reinforcement, with waterproofing, with a large number of projects in Belgrade, with system solutions for swimming pools, I don`t know what, but the students who now graduate from the university, well - not all of them will be furniture designers, and the like. The building of the Belgrade Technical Faculty, where electrical engineers are on the ground floor, construction on the first floor, and architecture on the second floor, is an institution.

We would say that someone decided to dematerialize young Belgrade architects.

Architect Pavlović agrees, however, that architecture in Serbia - what you can see - is better than before, but she also believes that this - her - profession is not appreciated enough: today everyone is smarter, everyone thinks they know the work of an architect (we in the editorial office of eKapija, along with other editorial offices, can confirm that this is the attitude of society towards journalists as well) and even women investors. And that is a very difficult and responsible profession (architecture, with due respect to the spouses of investors). One of our well-known architects told us earlier about his problems during the Expo construction, that the builders wanted to bypass his solutions, in order to make them as they saw fit: simpler, cheaper...

- We also work a lot with investors. If it is about the facade, for example, the architect can propose both the decor and the facade system, but in the end, the investor still decides. Sometimes, even, there is a triangle: investor-contractor-architect, sometimes the contractor is the one who guarantees the material and proposes a solution. There are investors who want, let`s say, parquet for a thousand euros per square meter, but there are also opposite cases and it is unclear to me, for example, why someone drastically lowers the quality of parquet, while the price of a square meter of an apartment is steadily increasing. We don`t change that parquet every day. And he pays 2,000 euros for the security door, while he is asking for parquet at 18 euros per square meter.

JAF also has a production facility in Nova Pazova near Belgrade. It is an Austrian company - the owners are from a small town around Vienna - and it can be said that it covers the logical markets, the part of Europe where, say, Austrian banks and insurance companies are active. But where are the boundaries? In Serbia, the Rubicon, or the straits of the Moravian Valley, was finally crossed: a showroom and distribution center was opened in Niš.

- I adore Nis, I am so happy that we are there! - says Melanija Pavlović, rooted in Bela Palanka through her grandfather, proudly. - When we opened the facility in Niš, it was not easy. Knowing that the south is more modest, I won`t say poorer, but specific, I was adamant that we succeed, and indeed, we do, and we grow. The demands are similar to here, there are top carpenters, especially in Leskovac, in Vranje, we have a dozen big customers, and they are serious companies, among them Simpo. The prices are, however, lower in the south, it is not easy to fight: sometimes we pass with the material, sometimes we don`t, sometimes we give additional rebates, but our advantage is a 200 square meter showroom, which has no competition. We made a small "boom", we are located on Čamurlijski put, it is an industrial zone that is developing intensively. We didn`t make a mistake, we have seven colleagues over there, the trend is to make presentations and have people come for a visit. Niš is working! I think it`s a misperception that there`s no work down there. We have so many customers in that part of the country who work, export, so many good producers, and small and medium-sized carpentry workshops, and corporations with foreign capital - the Italians are in Vranje, the Danes are in Niš - it is not true that there is no work and I think that Niš is yet to develop: somehow, I have positive energy towards the south.

- There were much fewer investors and investments, and somehow... well, somehow we survived that too. I always start from the place where it is thinnest: if we have a carpenter, or a waterproofer, or a tiler, that is his main occupation, and he has to find a way to work, to earn, and to feed his family. Let`s go back to the corona: everything was closed, but all our carpenters were working. So I`ve been a realistic optimist all my life. And it`s been a long time since our situation was like this... specific, I won`t say difficult. We have a situation with NIS, a situation with fuel - let`s face it, we don`t know if there will be tomorrow or not, but the price of fuel affects the entire market in all segments. The material is constantly increasing in price. MFC for example, is made from wood chips, which are mixed with glue, the integral part of the glue is urea, and the largest producer of urea in the world is Iran, so, of course, urea is much more expensive now. Then, most of the wood was imported from Russia - the famous Russian plywood, then veneer, plywood - and we had to reorient ourselves, now we import from 22 countries of the world, from our parent company in Austria, but also from Turkey, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia, unfortunately, Serbia is not rich in oak. But there are not enough truck drivers, nor the rest of the labor force - which is constantly increasing in cost. I am somehow too proud of our people, and I think that God is protecting us. I think that construction will not stop, because some people love each other, some children are born, some marriages break up, some apartments are sold, some are divided in half, something always happens: if Belgrade does not grow, some other cities will grow. Both Stara and Nova Pazova have grown, I`ve been there for seven years. Maybe it will be done differently, but I don`t believe that it can fit everything.

According to the director of JAF, there are sources of financing available for this branch of the economy in Serbia. The company she represents plans to invest considerable money this year as well: buy new machines, expand production and employ people. And the plan is the same for next year.

- Despite everything that is happening both globally and locally, I think it is excellent news that a foreign investor, specifically from Austria, which is among the top five foreign investors to Serbia and an overall friendly country, continues to invest in our country, because it is a good indicator that he plans to stay here, and not to pick up his suitcase if it "gets crowded". And there are loans for domestic companies, with whom I am constantly in contact, as well as with carpenters - they are all in loans. They also have subsidies for machines from the state, which is not bad, because it means that the state takes care of people.

JAF`s motto is: The tree is our world.

We confirm - our profession materializes that politically correct, aestheticized terminology.

- Or it is called refined chipboard, since it has that melanin decorative paper, so you can choose what color your kitchen will be. And now the European Union has tightened the criteria, demanding that the level of formaldehyde (an integral part of the glue) be lowered below 0.5%. I think that the EU, and not only the EU but also the world, will tighten us more and more because of such things: the whole industry will have to use less and less materials with harmful ingredients in them over time.

Until then, with us - Expo. There is a lot of work there, and our interlocutor says that the partners and customers of the JAF detachment company are engaged in that project, towards which the material of this Austrian company also goes towards the Sava edge of the Srem Plain. She expects that there will be work for builders even after the Expo. She always supports development and progress, she says.

(Facade made of compact panels)

- We try to be present, we can`t help everyone, but we do. We support Bina (Belgrade International Week of Architecture), the Women`s Architectural Association, and the Association of Architects of Belgrade. Although all companies in principle like to work with architects, I believe that money must be redirected towards the profession. This is the least we can do.

The word is about architecture as another of the women`s professions - although the degree-requiring jobs are gradually becoming more or less the same, as the eternal boy population falls further and further behind with school qualifications.

- As a joke, I like to ask my colleagues from the technical faculty building: Why do builders and electrical engineers have crooked necks? And they will say: What do you mean? Well, just like that. Because the most beautiful women have always been and remained in architecture, and we have a large atrium in the common building, so you looked up a lot... Yes, architecture is still largely a female profession, but men are still much more successful: they fight for their place more easily, and women are always somehow "number two". There are, however, top female architects, as well as women who are in business through architecture, and not just designers or contractors - says the architect Melanija Pavlović, business woman, for eKapija.