Stefan Stanković

advisor

GAF - University of Niš - Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture

Serbian

To create sustainable space for a future generation more

This project stands out with its discipline, restraint, and material honesty. It doesn’t try to impress with formal acrobatics — instead, it creates impact through silence, scale, and radical clarity of intent.
The choice to work with rammed earth, paired with exposed concrete, is not just a sustainable decision — it’s a statement of architectural attitude. The palette is warm but never sentimental, raw but never rough.
The renders communicate a deep understanding of light — how it moves through space, how it defines mass and void. The courtyard shot is particularly strong: it feels like architecture, not just image-making.
There’s a clear rhythm between monumental spaces and intimate ones. This spatial sequencing gives the project a cinematic quality, almost like moving through a series of framed moments.
This is mature architecture. Confident, grounded, and deeply aware of how buildings live in landscape. It doesn’t oversell, doesn’t overperform — it just stands still and lets the sun do the rest. A beautifully restrained piece of work that speaks softly, but with weight.

Some thresholds — between indoor and outdoor, or heavy and light — feel a bit abrupt. Look for ways to soften or mediate transitions without losing the architectural power.
While the material palette reflects local logic, the spatial language leans international. A deeper dive into local tectonics, rituals, or vernacular rhythms could give this project an even stronger sense of place.
In some views, the interiors risk blending into one another visually. Consider how subtle changes in texture, light, or ceiling height could reinforce program shifts without losing the overall cohesion.

Dear Stefan Stanković, we sincerely appreciate your honest feedback and take it very seriously as both a critique of our project and a valuable learning opportunity for future endeavors. Our aim was to create a silent architecture in harmony with the landscape, featuring dramatic spaces and a journey that could weave together all the program’s functions through an intriguing and dynamic walk.

Regarding your observation about the architectural approach, we think that the choice of use pure volumes complicates the use of interior and exterior transition elements, which run the risk of appearing as added components unrelated to the original volume. Nonetheless, we agree that this is a important point and will consider exploring ways to soften these transitions without compromising the sought-after sense of purity.

Inside the spaces, we often use textile divider filters that add a local particularity, incorporating elements and techniques from the indigenous culture of the region. While we concur with your suggestion to differentiate the interior spaces more clearly according to their function and location for easier orientation, we appreciate the value of maintaining a cohesive spatial language.

Once again, we thank you for your valuable insights. We find this exchange profoundly enriching, and we hope to continue it in this or future projects. Warm regards from the entire team.

- Belisario