Block 30 is among the first residential blocks built in New Belgrade. The designer was Uros Martinovic, professor at the Faculty of Architecture. Initially, Block 30 was designed as a high-standard housing complex. However, the political situation in Yugoslavia at that time, especially in 1968, when the construction of the block was supposed to begin, did not favor that. The Block 30 project was completely changed and built as a social housing block. Block 30 was completed in 1979. What that meant in the design and construction sense? In order to ensure the fast construction of the buildings, the constructive structures were applied of reinforced concrete pillars, beams and slabs on which prefabricated concrete facade panels were installed.
Four construction companies completed the construction: Hidrotehnika, Dom, 7 July from Belgrade and Beton from Novi Sad. At Hidrotehnika`s Site, I worked at the position of site manager III. I was the youngest engineer, and it was my first site area. Hidrotehnika was huge construction company equipped with all construction machinery, cranes, concrete mixers, concrete pumps and several concrete factories. The prefabricated concrete facade elements production were started at one of the Hidrotehnika polygons and were applied for the first time. However, during the process of production, the removal of elements from the molds and their transport to the building site occurred damaging. Therefore, company organized the production of facade elements at the site area. Metal molds were madden, reinforcement was done over the day, placing of concrete was exclusively in the evening when there was no sun. The molds were covered with wet rags for quick bonding of concrete. Particular attention was paid to the quality of concrete, by controlling the cement and the composition of granulation of stone and sand. The concrete factory was also installed at the site area and laboratory for controlling the quality of concrete mixture.
This enabled the rapid assembling facades and protection the interior from the atmospheric influences, which made possibility the installation engineering systems and finishing works. Regardless of the fact that the facades of the buildings are made of concrete, Block 30 is one of the most beautiful and most humane blocks in New Belgrade. Among the other buildings constructed at site of Blok 30, the buildings built as five stories were in total 30. All buildings have underground garages and basements.
The specialties of Blok 30 are the indoor courtyards with rich greenery, children's playgrounds, as well as a sports playground for basketball and football. Even today after 39 years, the concrete facades of Blok 30 are white and nice.
