RIBA Eye Line Drawing Competition 2017, Jury Report

Snežana Zlatković, University of Belgrade Faculty of Architecture

Millions of City Plans Transformation:

Micro Macro Atmospheres Mapping

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Produced as part of Zlatković’s PhD research, and initially described by Joseph Robson as resembling ‘the output of a broken printer’, this entry proved its worth by making it through to the end. The submission’s attendant explanation is not likely to help, either through translation or concept itself. The narrative around these digital transformations of city planning is dense and obfuscating, much like the images. 

But there is a fizzing, electric energy to Snežana Zlatković’s monochrome and clashing colours that suggests method to the madness. Hunter spoke of ‘Gerhard Richter-like qualities’, whereas Youkhana was reminded of James Corner’s renderings of the American landscape. Pearson was keen to highlight the potentiality of the image rather than whether it realised space or not – something picked up on by Spiller, who called it ‘a type of glitch space’. ‘Everyone has been describing a project directly,’ said Pearson, ‘Zlatković has been more indeterminate, quite the opposite in fact – a field of pink noise.’ Even the circumspect Robson was won over by the techno-punk graphics, admitting the author might be on to something. ‘I agree we can’t not have it in,’ he concluded. ‘It’s mad – but it’s also exciting and inspiring.’