The Secret of the Spiral Staircase

€100–€600

EN

          The view of this elegant spiral staircase instantly took me back to 1970, to an unforgettable lecture at the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. Professor Slobodan Romić, who taught Concrete and authored countless structural calculations, was explaining how spiral staircases are designed — one of the most demanding forms in structural engineering. At one point he paused, looked at the full amphitheater, and said that in the whole of Yugoslavia the number of engineers who could calculate such a structure could be counted on the fingers of one hand. And then, with a mischievous smile, he added: “I am one of them.”

          I don’t know who designed this staircase or who calculated its structure, but it seems extraordinary to me — precise, harmonious, almost sculptural. It’s only a pity that it faces the courtyard, hidden from the street. Perhaps that’s exactly why this scene feels like a small architectural-engineering secret visible only to a few.

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SR

          Pogled na ovo elegantno spiralno stepenište odmah me je vratio u 1970. godinu, na jedno nezaboravno predavanje na Arhitektonskom fakultetu u Beogradu. Profesor Slobodan Romić, koji je predavao predmet Beton i bio autor bezbroj statičkih proračuna, objašnjavao nam je kako se konstruišu spiralne stepenice — jedna od najzahtevnijih formi u građevinarstvu. U jednom trenutku zastao je, pogledao pun amfiteatar i rekao da se u celoj Jugoslaviji mogu nabrojati na prste jedne ruke inženjeri koji to umeju da izračunaju. A onda je, uz šeretski osmeh, dodao: „Ja sam jedan od njih.“

          Ne znam ko je projektovao ovo stepenište niti ko je radio statiku, ali deluje mi izvanredno — precizno, skladno, gotovo skulpturalno. Šteta je samo što je okrenuto ka dvorištu, pa se njegova lepota ne vidi sa ulice. Možda baš zato ova scena deluje kao mala arhitektonsko-inženjerska tajna koju imaju priliku da vide samo neki.