Sarajevo, 22^nd of August 2010

Architect Antonio Sant’Elia was probably one of the most famous visionary of his period: He painted high solitaires and celebrated the new beauty of concrete and cement. One century later, his visions are realizing.

In Guardian, Jonathan Glancey says that the new solitaire “Strata” reminds him to the modern Citta Nouva, the city which Italian futurist Sant’Elia already painted. This solitaire changed the face of London, as the first building that included wind turbines in its structure. The first solitaire of the planned three has been finished, and consists of 43 floors, is 147 meters tall, and about thousand of citizens are starting to move there.

The Worst Building

The wind turbines will produce 8% of needed energy for the solitaire. “It looks as the solitaire in SF movies from the 30’s: the perfect place for a hero who fights on the roof”, describes Glancey the building across the St. Paul’s cathedral, but also considers that it’s too early to tell the final review.

“Strata”, which cost 113.5 billion pounds, has been nominated for the worst building in Great Britain. Its esthetic impression, it has to be admitted, is very far from the perfect one. However, the citizens won’t probably mind the esthetic impression of the solitaire: every flat has giant windows, so the view gives the feeling as you own the whole city. The problem is that the average London citizens can only afford the flats between the 2^nd and the 10^th floor. Other flats are toys for the rich people.

Billions of Dollars

While the controversies continue in British press will the architect Norman Foster leave the House of Lords or not, at the same time, his plan called Masdar is finding its realization. Masdar is the first city in the world with no carbon dioxide, no fossil fuel nor garbage. The famous architect engaged over 500 experts from different fields for the realization of Masdar. Around 50.000 people will live in this city, which will cost about 22 billion dollars: they will park their cars outside the city, and through the city they will move exclusively by metro and electric cars, which drive under the street level. All the narrow streets and thin wall buildings, as in the architecture of traditional Arabian cities, will provide shadow and are only intended for pedestrians.

Electric power will be produced only from the solar panels and wind turbines will cool the city. Masdar will be situated 17 km from Abu Dhabi and will be oriented to the North – East and South – West sides, because of the perfect balance between light and shadow. A project that seemed an impossible utopia in the 70’s is now reality: a futuristic city which is inspired by the traditional architecture of Arabian cities and is fully sustainable.

Željko Komšić, Bosnian President, with Angelina Jolie, talking about Bosnian refugees and poor people (Josip Broz Tito on the picture)

Unfortunately, Guardian doesn’t say anything about useless misuse of the money, while the Arabian neighbors are dying of hunger and diseases. In Pakistan, people are dying of floods, in Ethiopia everything causes death. At the same time, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are building golden castles. A united or one Islamic world doesn’t exist, as the Bosnian president, Željko Komšić, said few days ago. While some of the Islamic states sold their souls to American and Israeli capitalists to be able to swim in golden pools, others can barely survive the next day because of poverty and hunger.