This rather interesting building is the YU Business Centre (YU Biznis Centar) on Bulevar Mihaila Pupina in New Belgrade (Novi Beograd). New Belgrade is a 15.7 sq miles municipality over the Sava river from Belgrade’s centre on a former swamp and around 240,000 people live there. Its construction started in 1947, which still continues to this day, and the area comprises mainly blocks of flats, business centres, large shopping malls and some government offices
There’s lots of interesting/ugly/corporate architecture in New Belgrade and of course you have your typical ‘communist’ large scale, grey/brown/beige rundown housing blocks. The rather colourful building in the photo, built in the 1990s I believe, is loved by some and hated by others. It has business offices, stores and I think some residential properties. It actually consists of several buildings which you can see in this aerial shot.
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on Feb 9th, 2009 at 4:54 am
Don’t know how I missed photographing this building for my blog. You’ve made it look quite attractive!
on Feb 9th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Haha. Yes, it doesn’t look that bad in this photo, does it?!
on Feb 9th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Hi Adam. I discovered your site through Twitter and I love it. That building in that photo is quite interesting architecturally
I’m assuming I’d be correct in thinking that you speak Serbian. If you don’t mind me asking, how long did it take you to learn? Or did you grow up speaking it?
on Feb 10th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Hi Natalie. Thanks for the kind comments
Yes, I can speak Serbian. It took me 4 years at university (including a year abroad) and 2 years of living here to be able to understand and say almost everything.
I actually found Serbian much easier than Russian to learn!
on Feb 10th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
OK, that’s good to know. I don’t know if you know, but I am currently learning Russian… I was curious to know how long it took a native English speaker to learn a Slavic language.
Sometimes I get frustrated and despair about ever being able to speak Russian fluently, but then I remember that I’ve just started studying it this year. One thing that many people seem to emphasise is the importance of living in a country where the language is spoken.
on Feb 10th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Don’t be too hard on yourself just yet!
I was totally confused about cases, sentence structure etc for the first 2 years. Then, half-way into my year studying in Serbia it all suddenly ‘clicked’ and a lot more made sense. It was a great feeling
Yes, living in the country where the languge you’re learning is spoken is extremely important and benefical. Make sure you take the opportunity if it comes your way.
on Feb 12th, 2009 at 1:31 am
Trivia time: belgraders call this building “Crvenkapa” (Little Red Riding Hood)
on Feb 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Didn’t know that, Viktor. Thanks for sharing!
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