Clinical Centre of Montenegro Emergency Centre

The competition seeks conceptual proposals for a landmark new Emergency Centre to be constructed on an undeveloped 6,701m² plot next to Podgorica’s Brutalist-style Clinical Centre of Montenegro complex.

The project – backed by Montenegro’s Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism – aims to increase capacity at the historic hospital which occupies a large waterfront site located on the western fringes of Montenegro’s capital city.

According to the brief: ‘The subject of the competition is the development of the conceptual architectural design of the Emergency Centre within the complex of the Clinical Centre of Montenegro on urban plot No. 12.

‘Since the capacity of the existing emergency centre, which is located within the main building of the Clinical Centre of Montenegro, cannot meet the needs of a large number of patients due to increase in the population in the capital city, it is necessary to build a new building of the Emergency Centre within the complex of the Clinical Centre of Montenegro.’

Podgorica – formerly named Titograd after the Yugoslavian communist statesman Josip Broz Tito – is the capital and largest city of Montenegro. It is located at the confluence of the Ribnica and Morača rivers and was heavily reconstructed following significant destruction during the Second World War.

The latest competition comes two years after Podgorica launched an open international contest to upgrade Golootočkih žrtava Square. In 2020, the city launched a separate competition to transform the banks of the River Morača into a new safe, comfortable and sustainable recreational zone with better connections to the surrounding historic city.

Judges will include Vladan Stevović, chief state architect in the Ministry of Ecology, Spatial Planning and Urbanism; Alessandro Armando, associate professor at the Polytechnic University of Turin; and Ljiljana Radulović, director of the Clinical Centre of Montenegro.

The overall winner – to be announced on 7 November– will receive a €33,000 top prize while a second prize of €18,000, third prize of €10,000 and three honourable mentions worth €4,000 each will also be awarded.