BDW's Second Creative Park in Kalemegdan, Belgrade
Thanks to this new partnership between BDW, “NIS a.d. Novi Sad” and the City of Belgrade, the most important and frequented park and historic monument in the center of Belgrade finally reclaimed both of its traditional playgrounds for future generations, as it was custom for generations of people coming from all parts of the city to enjoy and play, as well as for tourists and visitors with children from all over the world.
The process of building the first playground was presented at the panel held during this year's Belgrade Design Week – the playground that was built a year ago at the Kalemegdan park under the project "100 Creative BDW Playgrounds for Children of Serbia", and the opening of another one by the end of this year was announced.
Playgrounds under the project "100 Creative BDW Playgrounds for Children of Serbia" shall be be built exclusively on public areas, selected in agreement with local administrations, in order to ensure open access to all children. The unique formula of public-private partnerships between local administrations and private donors is a key to the success of this non-profit project:
At the first playground designed at the Kalemegdan park, Belgrade Design Week connected, as donors, the City of Belgrade with its offices and Property Development Ltd., Serbian branch of the Greek company Lamda Development, known for the construction of a complex on the site of the former Beko factory, restoring the part of Dorćol between the Fortress and the Danube. Their participation in "100 Creative BDW Playgrounds for Children of Serbia" has made it possible for one of the most important playgrounds in Belgrade, which was shut down by inspection because it did not meet the basic safety standards, to become an innovative playground, in terms of concept, quality and design, but also the kind of place that has the world-class quality seen in the greatest cities of Europe and the world.
"Joint forces of experience and youth bring the best results. We are in the business of construction and reconstruction of playgrounds. Our goal was to create a place children can enjoy. It was the first playground which marked the beginning of cooperation with Belgrade Design Week and the donors, and we are currently working on a playground project fundedby NIS", said Nina Jandrić, secretary of the Secretariat for Utilities and Housing Services.
"I was walking around Kalemegdan recently, and I realized that a year after the opening of the playground nothing was broken, which proves the quality of playground components is very high. I think that the implementation of this project was facilitated by good cooperation between all the partners: city authorities, investors, designers and Belgrade Design Week. Children's enjoyment is the reason our company is particularly glad to be a part of this project", said Boris Tancabelić, director of the Lamda development’s Belgrade office.
The young Belgrade-based architecture studio "MADA", which drew the public’s attention after representing Serbia at the Venice Biennale in 2012, was appointed to design the first playground. In partnership with the Embassy of Finland, the Finnish company Lappset – one of the world’s most creative and awarded international playground design and manufacturing companies – also participated in the project. Lappset even gave a 50% discount for components of the first playground in Belgrade."Lappset is an example of great Finnish design. The company has been producing practical objects for decades, and we are happy that the children in Serbia now get to use their products. I used to play on their playgrounds as a child", said Outi Isotalo, Charge d'Affaires of the Embassy of Finland in Belgrade
With the cooperation of the leading professionals in the field of innovation and design, the project "100 Creative BDW Playgrounds for Children of Serbia" enables the creation of playgrounds that will last, that meet all the sustainability standards, keep up with the times in which we live, and provide children with safety and comfort in a creative, active and versatile space for play.
BDW is happy to announce to have received confirmation for two more playgrounds to be donated to the children of Serbia in Summer / Fall 2014, as part of the “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA” campaign, under the High Patronages of The President of the Republicof Serbia and the Mayor of Belgrade Mr. Siniša Mali, and thesupport of H.E. Mr. Pekka Orpana, the Ambassador of Finland.Thanks to a donation of “NIS a.d. Novi Sad”, the old playground in the centre of the famous Kalemegdan park in Belgrade, infront of the iconic Cvijeta Zuzorić pavilion – in desperate needof reconstruction – shall finally get the long awaited complete reconstruction, along the new creative standards introduced by BDW in 2013 at the first Kalemegdan playground, only a couple of hundred meters away.
The new BDW playground was opened on Sunday 24th May 2015 by Belgrade’s Mayor Mr. Sinisa Mali, the Ambassador of Finland H.E. Mr Pekka Orpana, the Deputy General Manager of the NIS corporation Mr. Evgeniy Kudinov, the Director of corporate communications of the NIS corporation Ms. Sanja Lubardic, the Belgrade City Architect Mr. Milutin Folic, the Secretary of Belgrade’s Communal affairs Ms. Nina Jandric, the General Director of Belgrade’s City Greenery Mr. Slobodan Stanojevic, and the founders of Belgrade Design Week Vesna and Jovan Jelovac.
As a future-oriented company, NIS gladly supports ideas and innovations that contribute to the welfare of the community, and “BDW’s Creative Parks” project is exactly that. Through our social responsibility programs we support a number of projects for the development of the community in which we operate, and particularly for the young. It was our great pleasure to support this wonderful idea and thus contribute to the opening of yet another inspirational playground forthe children of Belgrade, said Sanja Lubardić, NIS Director of Public Relations and Communication.
Another innovative creative playground is planned to be built atthe Ušće plateau, thanks to the donation of the“UŠĆE Shopping Center d.o.o.”, who recognized the importance of improving our children’s life, and joined BDW’s non-profit national campaign for building “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA”. The Ušće playground is even more important because it signals the transfer of BDW’s ideas to New Belgrade, the new part of town, away from the old city centre, and shall in fact become the first ever children playground in what is the vast expense of the Confluence park area, which in self is an almost unbelievable fact. We are in any case very happy to become part of history thanks to this potential new partnership between “UŠĆE Shopping Center” and the City of Belgrade, and hope that this will not remain the only new playground in the immense and important Confluence park area.
We hope that these two new cases of public / private partnership in Serbia, will inspire and encourage other companies and institutions throughout the nation, to become part of our project with own proposals, initiatives and donations, and that very soon our dream of “100 CREATIVE BDW PLAYGROUNDS FOR CHILDREN OF SERBIA” will become reality in many other places throughout Serbia.
