Arrival and departure . "The pier is almost unnoticeable at the bank itself. The height difference of several meters between the water surface and the built bank has been used, where the works is hidden, placed on pontoons so that it follows the river horizontal and in no way disturbs the recognizable panorama of Belgrade or the ship view.A simple function with embarking disembarking ramp, police and customs control, several shops, sanitary facilities blocks and other pertaining functions provides a well laid out space, straight line communication and simple orientation.The sturdy flattening (laid down) of the works has been fixed with two verticals, regulators - the lighthouses, which define and border the space of the port platforms in respect to the horizontal river banks. In daytime the pier blends with the urban landscape as a chameleon, and at night it is visible from afar singled out from the environment by diffused light. "
Pier 100 . Pier is an installation, architectural object dislocated at the medium boundary. As per its intention and use it makes the passage of pedestrian flows from the passenger ships to the bank, and as per the function and program, it is an infrastructural traffic facility, placed as an installation between the bank and the river which during the year varies in the range up to five meters along the height.Pier is an element of urban flows which determine the majority of the works manifestation. The context affects the concept, so that the works outgrows its condition of individuality into the urban fragment. It is the mixture of versatile relations: the condition of purpose and the condition of meaning of the urban fragment, the condition of urban trash and negation of ideological excesses of representativeness.
The works - installation . (notion of installation. 1 the act of installing, placing, being installed; 2. device, machinery etc.; that which is placed, medieval Latin in + stallum stall' 3. facility.) (w) The installation character of the works has been determined by instability of the spatial condition, namely the character of temporariness. The presence of multitude of river installations, plants and facilities has defined the spatial expression and infrastructural character of the works, which more suggest the place of flow, then the monumental stability and causality.
The works - interface . (the notion of interface: a surface regarded as the common boundary of two bodies, spaces or which separates two phases: the point at which the independent and most often unassociated systems come in contacts and interact or communicate; man - machine interface.) (w)Pier is the works - interface in which parts of different dualities overlap exactly due to the fact that it is neither part of the one or the other, but is one in another and vice versa.
The essence of domestication has been dislocated into the flow instead of the sojourn, and its static in respect to the water flow denies its essence of becoming a ship. The strong connection with wharf, the bank, does not enable it to follow water dynamics but the immanence of the vertical movement with the water level changes the static and stability of the structure on ground.Pier is the building material of the urban line, boundary and piece of coast in water, almost the adapter of the firm boundary and changeability which is the reflection of water move and dynamics of water line. Structuring and partiality in continuing and inclusion of the elements of the context forms an emanating entity of a superior degree.
In spatial openness, which supports and rest on the different levels flows, paradoxically is placed a system of public control determined by program and functions. Openness supports the flow rate and the control causes direction of such flow by spatial organization and building elements.
The articulation of the works membrane has been treated as a reflection facing the image. Facing the river and water, the works is open, exposed and transparent. Transparency and openness of the functions is spatial and program expansion of the deck. Opposite the strong bank protection the works is closed, except for the parts of the side halls in which the bank protection wall at the same time is both the wall and the aesthetic value of the access.
Cube architecture establishes the reference to artificiality and identity of the works, whereas the treatment of the secondary elements, their coarseness of treatment and incompleteness makes an association with the remnants of infrastructure and in time, an obsolete technology, which is a reminder of history and indicates to the attitude of the city towards the quay. The identity of Pier is in its contradiction, camouflage and its existence in disappearance and mimicry.
Location . The Sava quay, in the course of time, has been more the end and the boundary of the city than its center. The location of the works gives the physical form to the first urban regulation line (water line) which is made of the rivers the Sava and the Danube.
The contact zone of the city and the river provides the works with dual character and makes it a specific conductor, the link between the urban structure and the network of river passenger traffic. Such contact is a program one and enables carrying out of a number of actions of arrivals and departures of the passengers in river traffic.
Architectonics . With its size and context character, becoming neither a ship nor a house, neither a river nor a city, the Pier losses any determination and that is which makes it more invisible than non-existent. Architectonics is defined by modulation and dimensional manipulation, the disappearance of design rather than expressiveness.
The expression of form/ the form of expression, with almost symbolic presentation of architectural character, acquires its meaning only in the position among the ship, by inversion of the house as a ship into the ship as a house. The meaning is expressed through the relation of the lines of the works, as boundaries of the urban structure, and the image carried by the ship and pier.Dimensional determinations of the works are the interpretation of the ship metrics with an objective of presence-absence from the city image and the image of the docked ship. That is the regulation of the height of the works and the roof, which are limited to the height which enables deck activities of the Pier. From the city side such height enables the presence of the ship in the Sava quay and their view from the Kalemegdan. The relation of the elements of form, roof, module and regulator - the lighthouse, supports technologically the function of the flow and its controls. The gangway - the ramp bears a romantic and glamorous character of embarking onboard and disembarking the ship.
Scene . The ambience potential made of the passenger ship and scenography of sailing in and sailing out of the ship has made this works subordinated to this theme. Multiple perception provide the object with different characters and participation in the urban images. The phenomenon of the first contact with the city has conditioned that it be as short as possible and that the urban image be present and incorporated in the entity of the works image. The boundaries and focus of that image, incorporation of that which is behind or in front, form the verticals - regulators/ lighthouses. In non-static perception of the entity of the Sava amphitheatre and the confluence of the Sava and the Danube, on ship approaching, the works with its manifestation marks also the boundary of the port and its entity. In the view from Novi Beograd, the works underlines the city panorama in a linear way. From the Kalemegdan and the Branko's bridge the identification of the works entity, through dimensions and undertaking also participates in multitude of events at the Sava quay. The participation of the works in the city image and in the periods of different water level through day and night panorama of Belgrade places the pier in the position on the image which is more than purely illuminated works.
The plan . Docking of passenger ship is understood as calling at port, mooring and realization of the ship and Pier contact over the ramp which is part of the ship equipment. Installation of the works consists of two cube platforms and ramps of changeable gradient in relation to the water level, resting on the quay bank pylon. In the original conditions Pier is also the border crossing facility, therefore its use is controlled and of restrictive character.
The works has been formed with symmetrically and linearly distributed functions, roofed over bottom deck, with two places for passenger ship ramps and two lighthouses at tract ends. Lining of the functions and free pier enable full observability and easiness-to-survey in the hours of peak load.Changeability and flexibility are reflected in the application of modular system which has been implemented without exception on the entire works. The presence of module and its full harmonization with structural elements, provides the possibility of daily changeability of the schedule and functions inside the works, which interpretation depends also on the requirements and change of capacities per season. Besides, modularity of elements and the possibility of their multiplication enable also final realization of Pier in its full length.
Constitution and structure . Architectonics has been defined by the possibilities of material used. Simplicity and repetition of the elements of steel structure make variability possible, in line with the basic requirements of the users. The permanent, equal distribution of load and symmetry of the functions distribution, simple sections and linings, and light spans are basic characteristics of the structure as much as of the works form.
The remnant . " The Sava pier is unlike the powerful marine ports with ocean liners, and it is not a big river port either, nor the stage for fatal and ephemeral encounters and farewells. It is more like a large station of the Venetian vaporette - there is no luxury, details implemented in a fascinating manner nor expensive material. It floats on water, seemingly insecurely, almost invisible, simply materialized, somewhere excessively coarsely and somewhere overly modest, but if it were not there, this part of Belgrade would lose an important part of its identity. Unimposing and rational works on water could even become the moving force which would help patch up the broken urban grid and revitalize architecturally important neighborhoods around the port, the coast and underneath the Kalemegdan terrace."
