Architecture of Territory: Kumodraž Agricultural Park

Many river creeks run down the tip of the Šumadija Upland, mouthing in the Sava River. The stream of the Kumodraž Potok forms in a hilly landscape of slow agriculture between the growing Padina Suburb and the villages of Kumodraž and Veliki Mokri Lug. It is an enclosed, empty space composed of a mix of small scale extensive cultivations, bushes, uncultivated moors, and scattered houses spreading from the fast-growing surrounding settlements. The area is a source of many other streams apart from the one that gave its name to the neighbourhood and is under environmental protection. It is one of the few riverbeds running through the city that has not been put underground. The Kumodraž village used to be a small, agricultural settlement far from downtown Belgrade, but after the 1960s, the city’s population boosted and grew substantially, as it was the case in almost all Belgrade’s suburbs at the time.

Since the 1990s, this area has been particularly known for the construction of informal mansions for wealthy citizens, whose political interests and influence extend into the surroundings. The fringe of the Kumodraž stream region is being consumed by fragmented settlements, where most buildings are not built legally. The lower part is densely built—over 40 % of surfaces are already impermeable. The upper part’s area is still less populated, with many remaining open spaces. The lower course of the waterway is hidden as part of the city’s sewer system: it collects large amounts of wastewater and contaminated drainage from landfills in the vicinity of livestock farms and serves as storm-water runoff. Like surface water, the upper part of the stream flows almost completely unregulated for approximately 2 km. The land is mainly considered a buildable resource, not a vital water catchment area. It shrank drastically in the past ten years: one-third of its surface has been built.

The project Kumodraž Agriculture Park: Flipping Hollow to Public Front explores design possibilities of hybrid agriculture landscapes in which interests of water management, biodiversity, and land opening up for development can be mutually achieved. The project works on flipping fronts, articulating Kumodraž Agriculture Park based on the potential of its current dormant productive lands and its topography. Traditional agriculture practices will be picked up in a contemporary way and enhanced with urban functions and services. The Agriculture Park’s new public landscape typology will combine city and countryside qualities in its four structural elements: The Productive Core, The Garden Front, The Vital Stream, and The Valley Avenue, which ties and activates the whole site.

Kumodraž is landscape and city, countryside and urbanity.
Kumodraž is outside and within.
Kumodraž is the backside of town and.
Kumodraž is the backside of the countryside.
Kumodraž is an oasis of overlapping conditions.
Kumodraž is an Agriculture Park.

‘Od Kumodraške Rupe Do Kumodraška Dolina’