Diploma Høst 2020
A Journey of Slobodište
Aleksandra Bašic
A journey of Slobodište is imagined as a silent walk through a carefully constructed landscape and articulated in a unifying architectural gesture. This journey is about experiencing different spatial conditions, exploring and getting lost in the topography of this place. Slobodište, meaning a shrine of freedom, is a word invented to name the place which commemorates the execution of civilians and resistance fighters from the Second World War. Designed in 1960 by architect Bogdan Bogdanović, memorial complex Slobodište was imagined as a park whose monument is embodied in the landscape and the ground of the place. Mythical and archaic in expression, it consists of valleys, slopes, mounds, forests and paths. Located in the unfinished area of the imagined memorial park, the project seeks a way to relate to the existing elements of the site: the mythical landscape, the forest and the city. Inserting a clear geometry into a constructed topography of an empty field, a new condition is created. The park becomes a museum - a museum of earth and sky, facing outwards, to the outside, to what it is surrounded by. Continuing on the existing paths established by Bogdanović, the project aims to extend the journey through Slobodište by adding new spaces and thus creating a new sequence of spatial experiences along the path.