Club, Belgrade

The Tube not only provides the basic physical space, the architecture also flirts subtly with its patrons' senses through shapes, surfaces and lighting. The club is situated in the basement of a post-war building in the centre of Belgrade and can accommodate around 500 people. On a 350-square-metre surface area, architects Djordje Gec, Daniela Stanković and Nevena Stojović have created a fluid sequence of spaces: cloakroom, bar, podium, private booths, lavatories.

Instead of floor-to-ceiling partition walls they have used artistically designed visual and/or spatial separators, like the installation designed by Serbian artist Mirjana Ranković between the entrance and the bar. 'Time Beyond Time' is the title of the piece, which represents a kind of time calculation system captured in glass. And the name is no coincidence. Inside the club, time is an unknown dimension. There is no relation at all with the outside world. And how could there be? The club is located in a former nuclear fallout shelter. Instead there are specially made 'virtual windows' in the form of changing thematic film clips that are projected onto the walls and floor.

The 20-metre-long podium emphasizes the proportions of the space. It actually functions as an interactive platform, its variations in height allowing it to be used as a podium, catwalk, rostrum or grandstand. Although massive, several tonnes in weight and apparently cast in one piece, the element seems to float above the floor thanks to the illuminated shadow gap. The sensual interaction between architecture and visitor extends to the way the various materials are used, alternating between concrete and velvet, hard and soft, tangible and perceptible.