Reconstruction and revitalization of Studio M

Studio M by architect Pavle Žilnik, once home to music, radio and television, has recently lost its original and primary function – housing the media. Its parent institution Radio Television Vojvodina is abandoning its premises, forcing the building into closure and abandonment.

The absurdity of the situation Studio M finds itself in originates from the fact that the facility is perfectly functional for the program it was originally projected for, including recording and radio-TV broadcast rooms, a 400-seat concert hall, and the artwork that is its integral component. Studio M’s cultural memory as the epicenter of local and international music and cultural production is of special significance.

This building represents post-war modernist society’s ideologies and tendencies. Over the years, society’s interest in this facility has declined, even though it is functionally suitable and technically equipped.

Master Thesis “Reconstruction and revitalization of Studio M” was created as a response to the non-existent treatment of the Studio M building after the eviction of Radio and Television of Vojvodina. The work aims to prove the potential that the building has, to strengthen its status as an institution of music, art and culture, and to propose a genius loci reconstruction project. In that manner, the author team conducts a series of site-specific analysis, with a result of four different theoretical studies. This results in a storytelling concept that should be the key and leitmotiv of the revitalization itself.

The purpose of the whole design process was the reveal of the facility’s meaning in the urban matrix of Novi Sad and beyond. The facility’s multifaceted core and potential is discovered with detailed analysis of the context, history and complex factors that influence Žilnik’s project. Proposed revitalization project tends to valorize the building in the context of modernist heritage, as well as clearly display that Studio M is the imperative of Novi Sad’s cultural scene, and that, as such, it must be preserved.

Author: Bojana Uzelac, Anja Marjanović, Anastasija Radovanović, Iva Pejčić