Slovenian and Swiss architects to reconstruct socialist monument in Montenegro

Slovenian architecture firm Sadar + Vuga and Swiss studio HFF have won a competition to transform the Dom Revolucije (Home of Revolution) in Nikšić, Montenegro’s second largest city.

Commissioned to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nikšić’s liberation from occupation by the Axis Powers after the Second World War, the Dom Revolucije has remained in an unfinished and derelict state for 27 years. Construction of the modernist building stopped in 1989 when Yugoslavia disintegrated, having begun in September 1978.

The Dom Revolucije was originally designed by Slovenian architect Marko Mušič, with the structure intended to represent the socio-political structure of Nikšić, Montenegro and Yugoslavia. The building, made from concrete, red metal trusses and featuring a large amount of glazing, was meant to house a theatre, music school and event spaces.

The project by Sadar + Vuga and HFF will see “interventions” to the architecture, rather than a complete overhaul, and will see the structure host a cafe, events spaces and an underground car park.

“The project was intended to be an architectural hybrid that would represent the socio-political structure of Nikšić,” HHF Architects said in a statement. “The proposal takes the existing architecture as a starting point and with pragmatic interventions, the new infrastructure reinvents the urban space.”

According to the architects, such a strategy “has the ability to address the current socio-political environment of Nikšić, without discrediting the existing architecture and without being ignorant to its past.”

Source: Dezeen