Characteristics
The total floor area covers 5,000 m2.[3]
Belgrade Cooperative Building was built according to the project by two leading Belgrade architects, University professors, Andra Stevanović and Nikola Nestorović. The majority of the building was constructed on the old embankment, and since the land was underwater due to the proximity of the river, the foundation of many walls has to be made of reinforced concrete, the first time in Belgrade,[2] but using the iron for clamps, since there were was no round iron in Belgrade at the time.
The contractors of construction works were brothers Stok. All cut stone materials were made by the "Industry of Ripanj granite." Decorations on the facades and interior, with rich decorative plastic in stucco on the walls and on the ceiling, are work of Franja Valdman, the sculptor of building ornaments.
Decorative paintings in the main entrance are work of Bora Kovačević and Andrea Domenico, while the paintings on glass were made by R. Marković.
The social status of the Belgrade Cooperative dictated that the representativeness and monumentality become the only possible architectural concept.
It was designed in the style of academism, with elements borrowed from both eclectic academic style, as well as contemporary Art Nouveau architecture. It was built as a monumental corner building with three wings in the floor plan at the irregular plot. The most representative part of the building is the prominent and jagged central part, where the public rooms are located, with the main facade in Karadjordjeva Street. The wings in Travnička and Hercegovačka Streets in which the workrooms are located have simple facades with uniform peaceful rhythm and different composition in every elevation. The central wing facing the street has two floors – the entrance and the ceremonial hall with the vestibule that extends through two floors and one storey Counter hall in the rear, while both side wings have a ground floor and two floors. Shops were once located on the ground floor of the side wings while the administrative and management offices were on the first floor.
The Belgrade Cooperative building was built using mixed techniques. Cellars, which extend beneath the entire building, are made of reinforced concrete, with Prussian vaults. Most of the building was built using a standard procedure, brick in lime mortar, and only partly in reinforced concrete. Bridging is architrave for the side wings, and the architrave and arch in the middle wing. Lantern construction above the central staircase is resolved in the form of triangular metal grille. Roofs have jamb walls, small slope and domes. Façade which is facing the street is made in stone slabs in socle zone and dressed in artificial stone, while the courtyard façade is plastered.
Structural system has vaults and marble columns. Main staircases are three-armed, stone or marble, while side staircases are spiral and iron. The interior walls are plastered and painted, while the representative rooms are decorated with wall paintings and marble imitation and have pilasters with gilded capitals and applied polychrome decorative female masks. The floors have parquet or terrazzo tiles. On the facades decoration was made of artificial stone, while the interior is in stucco and plaster.
All the decorative motifs of Belgrade Cooperative Building are borrowed from post Renaissance, predominantly Baroque, but modernly interpreted to form the unique style expression. Frontal facade is dominated by the large glass surface above which is a dome with merlon flanked by sculptural group consisting of a female figure, the personification of Serbia and four children's figures that embody the Industry. In the niches on the side projections of the main façade are the figures of a Woman with beehive and a Man with a scroll. Inside the building in the main hall, at the beginning of the staircase there are two counterpart figures of a young woman in the form of a chandelier. Above the gallery in the main hall there is a sculptural group consisting of a female figure with a crown, again a symbol of Serbia and two children figures representing the insurance and banking. Metal figure, probably an import, is gilded, as well as all stucco decoration. On the top of pilaster strips, above the windows of the first floor and in the amount of ground-floor windows on the side walls there is a number of reliefs in the form of female masks, while the mask of Mercury is positioned above the entrance. The unity of architecture and applied decorative arts in the interior of the Belgrade Cooperative building is clearly visible. That kind of unity is particularly valued in European architecture from the late 19th and early 20th century and is known as the "synthesis of art". This "synthesis of art" is extremely rare in Belgrade architecture and it makes Belgrade Cooperative building a unique creation. Each of the decorative elements, such as the paintings on the walls and ceilings, sculptures, stucco decorations, chandeliers and appliqué on the walls, painted glass parapet at the Counter-hall or glass surfaces of windows and doors of the main hall, are distinctive features which is why Belgrade Cooperative became a cultural monument in 1966.
The building is often named as one of the most beautiful buildings in Belgrade.[2][4]
