Restoration of the Elementary School "Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi"-Skopje

The post-earthquake rebuilding of Skopje provided valuable examples of modernist architecture that deserve to be included in the category of a protected building heritage. A prominent instance is the elementary school named after the famous Swiss educator and pedagogue "Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi", the first example in this area that introduces the practical application of deeply thought-out methods of integral education promoted by him in the early 19th century. Many contemporary architects have incorporated the efficient use of this educational concept, including the renowned Swiss architect Alfred Roth, creating a unique sample of a school that includes specific geographic and regional features (climatic, seismic, cultural - aesthetic). In terms of properties, the building contains originality, rarity, and aesthetic-artistic value. With reference to other criteria, it also includes the value of authentic preservation, which is in crisis without adoption of adequate and prompt protection and restoration measures. In respect of protecting the school from further destruction, the Swiss Embassy in Skopje made an official request for a study and design documents for the school reconstruction by detecting all critical issues, developed and executed by the expert team from the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje. This paper, which is based on the results of the research, conducted by us as a part of the group, aims to elaborate the methodological approach of the analyses contained in the study, which, as a pre-design procedure, provided a solid base for developing design documents. A significant component of the study that needs to be emphasized was the use of computer technology throughout the work process, using parametric insertion of structural and other elements of the building's architecture into a 3D model. This approach allowed the generation of architectural details across any part of the facility in an exact form, which proved extremely useful through the process of constructing the design documents.

Impact of Feng Shui Bedrooms on Self-Assessed Sleep and Well-Being: A Randomized Double-Blind Field Research with Instrumental Biocommunication

Chinese feng shui is well-researched in social sciences but under-researched regarding its impact on the well-being of users. The main problem is the isolation of feng shui effects. Participants (n=134) provided a photograph of their bedroom onto which feng shui recommendations were sent long distance (for 4 months), using an instrumental biocommunication device with a computer, white-noise diode and fengshui recommendations database. Three groups were formed, one acted as control (double-blind protocol). Data was collected through self- evaluating questionnaires (n=10) on the quality of sleep and well-being. Data were statistically evaluated with R environment using linear mixed models and the analyses of variables: feng shui support, stress, age and bedroom evaluation. Results for sleep show feng shui as the most statistically significant variable (p=<0.001). For each day the value increases by 0.003 on the Likert scale 1-5. In 120 days, it increases by 0.36. The impact is dynamic and in direct connection with the level of our living environment satisfaction, stress and age. For well-being most statistically significant are stress (p<0.001) and the interaction of feng shui and bedroom rating (p<0.001). Positive feng shui impact is highest for participants without stress and low satisfaction with the bedroom environment.

Macedonian Architecture From 19th Century in The Village of Leshok, Republic of Macedonia

INTRODUCTION: The old rural architecture in Macedonia is insufficiently studied and in many villages is in the process of extinction, especially in Western Macedonia where there are many villages whose inhabitants have emigrated. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research is the folk architecture of the house in the village of Leshok, near Tetovo, and getting acquainted with the other types of objects that are part of the rural-economic yard and are inextricably linked to the daily work, life and customs of the peasant from this region. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For analysis of the traditional architecture of the houses in the village of Leshok from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, 10 typical houses with different structure and location are chosen, which are identified and displayed by the Google Earth search engine. RESULTS: The basic characteristics of the architecture of the village house in Leshok are explained, where the economic yard together with the economic objects are included. The functional solutions of the foundations of houses from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century are shown, the constructions used in the house of Leshok are described, as well as the materials that were used for their construction. In the end we get acquainted with the interior and the design of the premises in the old Macedonian house. CONCLUSION: Leshok belongs to the group of mountain villages of compact type. The configuration of the terrain, the dead riverbed, dictated the way of construction, where the houses are placed one above the other and each has a clear view of the valley. In that way, the basic architectural features of the Leshok house are formed. It is a typical mountain house built of stone and wood, on two floors and with an open veranda.

Bosnian Chardaklia House: The Dzider Familyʹs House in The Crnoc Village near Kakanj

The Dzider familyʹs house in the Crnoc village near Kakanj is located on the flat terrain of a steep slope with southwestern insolation (Figure 1). It is one of a large number of relatively preserved bosnian chardaklia houses in the area of Kakanj, in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina where the most developed types of Bosnian chardaklia house were built (Figure 2). The house was built during the reign of the Ottoman Empire (before the 19th century), but to date it has undergone a number of reconstructions and renovations[1]. It belongs to the type of two-tracts bosnian chardaklija house. One of the most valuable features of this house (except for its age) is the fact that it was erected on a living water source, which is still in the basement of the house today.

Bosnian Cardaklia House: The Osmic Family's House in Mala Brijesnica near Gracanica

The Osmic familyʹs house in Mala Brijesnica near Gracanica is located on flat terrain, on a slope with southwestern exposure. The house was built by Mr. Redzo Osmic in 1920-1926 years. The house is one of the most preserved examples of the authentic bosnian chardaklia house in Gracanica, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole. The Osmic familyʹs house in Mala Brijesnica near Gracanica, according to the disposition of their horizontal plans, belongs to the type of three-tracs bosnian chardaklia house, which was developed through the basement, ground floor and first floor in a vertical slab. The dispositions of the horizontal plans of the house are designed in such a way that the house can be divided both horizontally and vertically into more autonomous housing units, which is one of the specifics of the Bosnian chardaklia house. According to its spatial concept, construction and materialization, and securing the cryptoclimate of space, the Osmic family house is an example of traditional bioclimatic architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Lifestyle as Habitat of Tomorrow Coexisting Models of Housing in the City

Living in a time of uncertain future, the home is in a constant process of re-thinking; from pluralization and individualization in the society and discontinuation with historical models, to social and spatial mobility, rational choice and availability of resources, leisure time and changing socio-demographic characteristics and the buildup of social fragmentation, there is a need for a re-qualification of the home as a way of identification. The term lifestyle, way of life or style of life in the contemporary society is often used in mainstream culture, media and marketing, but the term has a long theoretical background in early social research. From the individual psychology research of Alfred Adler’s style of life, through Pierre Bourdieu’s hierarchical models, lifestyles constitute the entirety of the actions of man in given conditions of the context. Can lifestyles emerge from the static and dynamic processes of social stratification, or can they transform their properties in the contemporary society of globalization? The research of the social structure (the way of life) and the material structure (architecture) of chosen areas of the city of Skopje in which we can find the idea of collective form, from the traditional Novo maalo neighborhood and living in the house, the courtyard and the street, to the community living in the atrium building of the Railway workers, the vertical dwellings on the bank of the river Vardar, emerging from the horizontal structure of the open and transit City Trading Center, to the small ring of the center of the city defined by the blocks and towers of the City Wall. The research is carried through 182 questionnaires of inhabitants in these areas, operationalizing lifestyles in empirical research. Can lifestyle become an analytical and in the same time generative tool for the future habitat models?

Architectural Term: Self – Similarity

Architecture, as one of the oldest areas of human activity, describes several categories that seem to be effective today: firmitas, utilities, venustas. But on the other hand, almost every period re-examines and reinterprets these terms. What is happening today? Are there old provisions still? Can we create new ones or expand, modify or re-create them? This paper evaluates the term of the architectural theme to contribute to the creation of a kind of critical vocabulary of contemporary architecture in the context of understanding architectural thought. Different ways of understanding/interpreting an architectural term can lead us to a new and different way of understanding and comprehending architecture itself in a modern changing world. This paper considers the relationship between fractal geometry and architecture as they respond to complexity and order, through the architectural term “self-similarity”.

Umoljani Village on Bjelašnica: Life in the Way of Sustainability

Bjelasnica Mountain occupies a central place in the geographical area of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to this fact, its altitude (2067 m), it is the border between Bosnia, on the one hand, and Herzegovina, on the other, and the border between the changed mediterranean and continental climates (while Bjelasnica itself has a mountainous to alpine climate). Due to these natural inputs, Bjelasnica is a „rain and snow catcher“, and because of its geological structure (mostly limestone), it is also the largest reservoir of water in B&H. That is why Bjelasnica is considered to be the „mother of B&H“, since at its base there are springs of two of the most important rivers in B&H (Bosnia and Neretva), and on its own (plateau of Bjelasnica) a large number of springs, watercourses, permanent lakes and bars. Natural conditions have been a magnet for inhabiting the Bjelasnica plateau, from prehistory to the present. Due to its specific natural values, in a combination of favorable social environment, Bjelasnica (with Jahorina, Trebevic and the city of Sarajevo itself) hosted the 14th Winter Olympic Games (1984) and subsequently hosted several FIS-races. The Umoljani village (geographical coordinates: 43° 40' 12.81'' N, 18° 13' 41.39'' E, about 1333 meters above sea level) is located on the southern slope of Bjelasnica mountain, in a gentle plain. The village belongs to the municipality of Trnovo (it is about 16.3 km away from Trnovo by air, 23 km from Sarajevo). Due to the abundance of natural resources (water, arable land, meadows, pastures, forests), the area of the Umoljani is constantly inhabited, from prehistory to the present. The presence of people in this area is evidenced by many cultural and historical monuments: antique hillforts, medieval necropolis of tombstones (stećci), remains of a medieval church, necropolis from the ottoman conquest and one of the oldest mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Until the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1991-1995), the village lived in a more or less traditional way, within its traditional physical structure. During the war the village was flooded and its population was exiled. After the war, the village was quickly rebuilt, but in the changed socio-economic circumstances, and with architectural structures that in all respects reflect modern life. It is of the importance that the katun settlement (Gradina) above the village with traditional architectural objects is preserved, as a picture of the former Umoljani village. The Umoljani village is an exemplary study of the metamorphosis of settlements (driven by the changing social environment), in the rich natural environment where they continue to live, partly in the traditional way, and partly in the modern way, that is, in the way of sustainability.

Housing in an Example of Low - Rise Residential Structure in Debar Maalo, Skopje

From city quarter with urban villas, yard houses and pittoresque ambient values, Debar Maalo in Skopje in recent time, is turning into a construction site of the intense rise of the building mass and filling in on every potential void, where the typology of multifamily residential buildings is dominant. But, can it be different? The marginalized forms of single-family housing, once a dominant lifestyle in Debar Maalo, single family yard houses, houses with ground contact are the remains of a passed image of this city quarter that should be the referent milieu of this research. This typology of a low-rise residential structure, should represent the renovation tactics of the the single-family dwelling in this part of the city of Skopje. The creation process of the new urban landscape of housing with characteristics of a dense and low-rise structure will be through the forward two stages: analysis and design. The location of interest will be analysed through architectural project of a housing block with the typology of a low-rise housing structure that should provide high urban density of 120 houses per hectare. The suggested typology of the housing structure should provide housing that will meet the new lifestyles and will achieve diversity of the houses according to their size, structure, and comfort. This thesis should refer to the idea of rethinking and reminiscing on the elementary architectural city image, low rise housing structure typology as a building type at the level of the morphology of the city of Skopje.

The House of the Dusper Family in the Kraljeva Sutjeska near Kakanj (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Bosnia and Herzegovina is in many ways a special, complex and controversial geographical, geopolitical and social space. As a state, it is home to „three constituent peoples“ and „other“ citizens. As such, it had a tumultuous history, with magnificent examples of coexistence, humanity and respect for its peoples, cultures and religions, as well as examples of expressing cruelty to one another. Kraljeva Sutjeska is a relatively small town near Kakanj whose historical importance for the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its location in central Bosnia, in the gentle plain that emerges from the rocky strait („sutjeska“) of the Trstivnica river, was the ideal natural place for the development of the city („suburb“) of the medieval rulers of Bosnia, that is, the royal residence (Banski dvor-Curia bani) of bans/kings from the Kotromanić house. In addition, Bobovac is located northeast (3.5 km by air), as a fortified royal city. Franciscan monastery in Kraljeva Sutjeska with the church of st. John the Baptist (erected in the early 14th century) and the mosque of Sultan Mehmed II El Fatih (erected in 1463) are the two most significant public sites and cultural-historical monuments that, in architectural terms, follow the patterns of two great civilizations - Christianity and Islam. The house of the croatian Dusper family in Kraljeva Sutjeska is a private residential building which, as such, is not the result of religious-cultural canons but an example of the genesis of architectural content, which at the same time, in its development, receives many different influences: building-architectural, religious, cultural, artistic ... The observer from the side (and especially by getting acquainted with the development of her spatial plan, interior decoration and individual elements of the equipment), depending on his culture, religious affiliation (...), will see a croatian-catholic house in the Dusper family house, and others - bosnian house-chardaklia or oriental type town house in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For this reason, the Dusper family house in Kraljeva Sutjeska is an invaluable architectural and cultural content, both for bosnian croats and for Bosnia and Herzegovina (which best represents its cultural complexity) and for architecture and culture on a global scale.