The extraordinary «Zgrada Papagajka» (“the Parrot Building”), a pungent, plumage-painted postmodern palace facing the Miljacka river in the heart of Sarajevo. One of those startling discoveries: before I happened across it I had no idea it existed. Designed by architect Mladen Goraždena in 1982 and completed in 1990, the enormous, 7-story, multisectional megablock was destroyed (like the rest of Sarajevo) just a few years after it was completed, but has been completely restored. Starting from a sort of Karl Marx Hof template, Goraždena mixed in a potent portion of Pompidou: not only with the bright colors but with the gigantically gestural multilevel staircases—and, for a socialist housing block, quite a lot of glass. The apartments are arranged around several massive courtyards, private balconies and communal walkways accented with purple metal-grate bannisters. The startling result—not of Social Modernism, but truly Social Postmodernism—is not very harmonious with its historic Hapsburgian surroundings; it seems to attempt to acknowledge its most significant neighbor, the exquisite Ashkenazi Synagogue of 1902, but its use of turrets, but this homage just adds to the PoMo zaniness rather than achieve any accordance with its milieu. But in a city heavy with history, tragedy and memory, this showstopper injects an exuberant shot of surprising, uplifting playfulness into the heart of the mannered riverfront promenade. shout-out to the website PetitFuté.uk.com for the background info. Zgada Papagajka, Mladen Goraždena, architect, 1982-90. Photos July 2019 Bauzeitgeist.
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