Thursday, October 9, 2008

Bosmal City Center in Sarajevo


Bosmal City Center, is a modern, private residential building with monitored entrances, reception, luxurious apartments and common areas (lobbies, saunas, pool for adults and children and a nursery) serving the residents. it's located in the Hrasno district of Sarajevo and until now was the highest building (118m) in the Balkans (construction started in 2001).



From the pormoting firm's description:

"The Center offers 306 residential units, with 8 penthouses and 298 apartments, organised in 14 types, with areas ranging from 80 to 220 sq. m. Nine high-speed elevators connect to the garage-commercial area of the center. The residents will be absolutely secure, with special security service responsible for constant monitoring of the whole object, with 200 surveillance cameras on duty, sensors and other modern equipment. The communication areas in the center, commercial areas and the underground garage with 400 parking lots are monitored from the reception point.
A restaurant is located at the highest point of the building, giving a panoramic view of the town, including the historical districts as well as the new part of town and its surroundings. The commercial area is open to the public, with two restaurants and a meeting bar, supermarket, hair and beauty saloons, dental practice, ambulance service, ophthalmologist’s and optician’s, leather goods boutique, art sales, jewelry shop and other exclusive boutiques."

Now it would be interesting to know, who are the residents that need so much security....


Here a picture that was made a couple of weeks ago from Peter when he visited Sarajevo.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Serbian Design - VODA VODA


My first "design-impact" in Serbia was shorty after arriving in Belgrade, when I bought a bottle of water at a snackbar.
I was already very inspired just from the ride from airport to the city (the Airforce Museum, some spectacular Blocks, the Genex-Building, the amazing view to the Belgradeskyline with Kalemegdan) so really I just wanted a bottle of water ....but I got one more overhelmig sensation: the bottle was the most beautiful plastic-bottle for water I had ever seen.

A transparent, squareshaped container with relief printing of the brand. The name of the water ('voda' in serbian) is: Voda Voda - like name and last name! Since 2007 Vlade Divac (most famous NBA basketball star from Serbia) is the owner of VodaVoda Company.


The amazing design is from Branko Luka cofounder and partner of non·object (an U.S. based design company).

The inspiration for the bottle came from the water itself, since water was composed and designed by nature log before life began. Water can momentarely take any shape of any vessel in an instant. Lukic wanted to create a vessel that would become a connector between nature and oneself, an aproach he already shows with the name of his company: non-object.

asked: what is non-object? the answer is:
non-object is the space between you and the object

The square PET bottle that can fit more bottles per given footprint than common round bottle takes care of the rational and pragmatic aspects of package design.

The PET Voda Voda Bottle
Designer: Branko Lukic
Branding and graphic design: Suncica Lukic




But who is Branko Lukic? Entrepreneur and master of the unexpected, he is non·object's design experience visionary and author of non·object Design Fiction book.
Prior to non·object, Branko was a lead industrial designer at frogdesign and IDEO, where he lead projects for clients such as Nike, Adidas, Samsung, Intel, Motorola, SAP, HP, Pepsi, Starbucks, Ford, Herman Miller and other major international companies.
Branko won his first design contract at the age of 18 back in Belgrade, Serbia. Since then, he has created work in a wide variety of areas, including industrial and product design, branding, sustainable design, graphic communication, digital media, and conceptual design. He holds many patents and has won numerous national and international awards in the field of design and branding including Business Week IDEA Gold Award, Graphis Design Annual Award, International Design magazine Awards, red dot Awards, Good Design Award etc.



Branko Lukic earned a B.S. in Industrial Design from the University of Arts in Belgrade. Here in the picture next to a mobile phone he designed that has no screen....just on all sides.
Here an interview for VIRED magazine.