TNE-DeSK Project two-day event at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture

TNE-DeSK Project two-day event at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture 

23-24. March 2026 

The University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture will host the two-day event of the TNE-DeSK project (TransNational Education – Developing Shared Knowledge in Innovative Materials and Digital Transformation for Sustainable Economy and Green Transition), carried out in collaboration between Politecnico di Torino – Department of Architecture and Design, the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture, and the “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje – Faculty of Architecture. 

The project was supported by the Italian Ministry of University and Research within the framework of the European Union – Next Generation EU (Missione 4 Componente 1, CUP H91I24000380007). 

The event is structured into three main segments: PhD Talks, Guest Lectures, and Exhibition. 

PhD Talks 

23-24. March 2026 (Room 200 9-13:30h) 

The seminar brings together PhD candidates who are in the final stage of preparing their dissertation proposals or who have recently completed the proposal submission process. It is conceived as a platform for presenting and critically reflecting on research through plenary discussion and the participation of invited critics. 

The seminar also provides participants with an opportunity to compare and exchange experiences in developing their doctoral theses with colleagues from the country and abroad, and through discussion with selected critics and other participants, to gain additional insights into their research and more clearly direct their further work toward the successful completion of their doctoral studies. 

Across four thematic sessions – Architecture, Memory and the Interpretation of Value; Spatial Patterns and Design Frameworks in Contemporary Architecture; Drawing, Speculation and Design Process; Architecture, Agency and Social Inclusion – research will be presented addressing issues of heritage preservation, design methodologies, spatial patterns, infrastructural transformations, speculative practices, as well as social and inclusive dimensions of architectural action. 

Guest Lectures 

24. March 2026 (Amphitheater 16:00-18:00h)

The central part of the programme consists of guest lectures by distinguished professors from Torino and Skopje. 

Prof. Michele Bonino
Constructing La Biennale: Behind the Scenes of the Venice Biennale 

Prof. Michele Bonino, architect and PhD in the History of Architecture, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design and Dean of the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD) at Politecnico di Torino, will present the research project Constructing La Biennale. 

The lecture analyzes the Venice Architecture Biennale as a complex process, revealing the material, technical, curatorial, and organizational layers that enable the realization of this international event. Through drawings, models, diagrams, films, and archival materials, the project reconstructs the “invisible infrastructures” of the Biennale over the past fifty years, framing it as a laboratory of architectural experimentation and institutional production. 

 Prof. Ognen Marina
Architecture as Infrastructure – European Capital of Culture as a Driver of Urban Transformations 

Prof. Dr. Ognen Marina is an architect and Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, “Ss. Cyril and Methodius” University in Skopje. From 2017 to 2025 he served as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, and since 2023 he has been Director of the Center for Advanced and Postdoctoral Research – CAPRIS UKIM. His research focuses on the development and implementation of innovative strategies in architecture and sustainable urban development, with particular emphasis on complex models of urban form and processes of urban transformation in transitional societies. 

The lecture Architecture as Infrastructure argues that architecture should not be understood solely as built form, but as a spatial, social, cultural, and symbolic framework that organizes urban life. Through the case study of Skopje as European Capital of Culture 2028, it examines how this title can function as a catalyst for urban transformation—activating public spaces, revitalizing neglected areas, strengthening cultural infrastructure, and connecting culture with education, tourism, creative industries, and social inclusion. The lecture further explores urban projects as socio-technical assemblages whose success depends on the alignment between design intentions and operational realities—between what is drawn, what is governed, what is maintained, and what is collectively imagined as the future of the city. 

Exhibition
Sava Blocks, New Belgrade. Rethinking Modernity 

Opening 24. March 2026 (18:00h) 

The final segment of the event is the opening of an exhibition of student works developed through a semester-long collaboration between six design studios in architecture, planning, and urban design from Torino and Belgrade. 

The selected project site, the Sava Blocks in New Belgrade – three large urban blocks developed in the 1960s and 1970s along the Sava river – offered a complex set of questions and challenges. The studios explored the site across different scales and design approaches – from urban design to architectural and structural elements, from strategic and experimental methodologies to the superimposition of new design principles onto the existing modernist fabric. 

The exhibition titled “Sava Blocks, New Belgrade. Rethinking Modernity” presents a broader selection of student works and reflects on contemporary possibilities for reinterpreting modernist heritage within the framework of sustainable and inclusive urban and architectural development. 

More information about the event is available in the programme.