ARCHYENERGY 2026 SPEAKERS

Lazar Kuzmanov (born 1968 in Titel) graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade under the mentorship of Prof. Svetislav Ličina (1995) and obtained a master's degree at the same faculty (2008).

He began his career at the Urban Planning Institute Novi Sad (1995-2001). In collaboration with architect Ilja Mikitišin, from 1997 to 2002, he won awards in architectural and urban planning competitions. Since 2004, he has led his own design firm, Kuzmanov and Partners. In independent work, he has designed residential and commercial buildings in Novi Sad, showcasing a bold design approach and careful attention to details. He is a member of the Engineering Chamber, the Association of Architects of Novi Sad (DaNS), and the Association of Applied Artists and Designers of Vojvodina (UPIDIV). From 2000 to 2004, he served as the Provincial Secretary for Architecture, Urban Planning, and Construction of AP Vojvodina. He also participated in teaching at the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad (1996-2012). He was the president of the Association of Architects of Novi Sad and the editor-in-chief of the DaNS magazine (2005-2008).

He participated in over fifty exhibitions and architecture salons nationally and internationally, receiving numerous awards and professional recognitions.

Igor I. Mikitišin, born in 1991 in Belgrade, grew up in Novi Sad, Serbia. He studied architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, and completed his postgraduate studies at KU Leuven, Architecture Faculty, Sint Lucas School of Architecture, Ghent, Belgium. There, he gained deeper theoretical and practical knowledge in sustainability in architecture and energy-efficient design.

He developed professionally as an architect in the Belgrade offices of Arhi.pro and ZAP Beograd from 2017 to 2022, mastering work in architectural design of large commercial, business, and residential buildings. He enjoys working and coordinating projects in BIM and producing visualizations and animated films for real estate and residential presentations in architecture.

He has received several awards in domestic and international architectural competitions in the field of culture and public buildings within the 4MIND bureau, with the most notable projects including:

• The expansion of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (ETF) and the Technical Faculties Campus in Belgrade (2022)
• The new building of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Natural History Museum in Podgorica
• The Museum of the First World War and Documentation Center within the Memorial Complex on Mount Cer
• The Music Academy building in Dorćol (FMU)

Together with his father and mentor, colleague Ilja Mikitišin, he won the Golden Trowel award for the House of the Year 2024, as chosen by the public.

In his private practice, he mainly focuses on designing single-family homes and interior design for various typologies - from polyclinics and restaurants to business and residential spaces.

He is one of the founders of the Sfera Podcast on architecture and public space culture, as well as the recently launched Sfera Forum, a meeting place for local creatives in public spaces. For his contributions, he recently received the Ranko Radović Award from the ULUPUDS Association, as well as a major recognition from the Society of Conservators of Serbia for his outstanding contribution to the protection of architectural heritage in Serbia. He is currently a Board Member of the Society of Architects of Novi Sad.

He is passionate about basketball, history, and classical music.

Danilo Dangubić is a Serbian architect who pursued his education in the United States at Drury University, where he completed his undergraduate studies in architecture. In 1999, he graduated from the prestigious Architectural Association in London, where he also began teaching following the completion of his studies. He has delivered lectures at numerous universities and participated in the Baumer Symposium for Distinguished Young Architects at the Ohio State University's Knowlton School of Architecture. Additionally, he is a member of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) validation panel, which granted RIBA accreditation to the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade.

In 2015, he founded the architectural studio Danilo Dangubic Architects in Belgrade. The studio, composed of over 20 young and talented architects, quickly established itself as a dynamic practice offering design, planning, production, and project execution services across various scales and complexities. The studio is committed to exploration and innovation in contemporary architecture. In 2024, Architizer recognized Danilo Dangubic Architects as one of the 220 most progressive studios globally.

Dangubić is the author of numerous projects in the fields of cultural, commercial, and residential architecture. His work was exhibited at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in 2021, as well as at the Piran Days of Architecture in Piran, Slovenia. He received the “Aleksej Brkić” Award for the best-realized architectural work in 2022 for the Central project. His Skew House project won an A+ Award in 2024 in the residential buildings category.

Danilo Dangubić is the chief architect for Expo2027 Belgrade and the author of the Expo2027 master plan.

Dejan Mitov completed his Master's studies in Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, as well as a Master's degree in Wood Product Design at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Belgrade. He is one of the founders of Modelart Arhitekti, an architectural studio established in 2009. Between 2013 and 2019, he was involved in teaching at the Department of Architecture in Novi Sad as a teaching assistant, while also serving as a member of the Center for Digital Design.

The primary focus of Dejan's professional work is the realization of architectural solutions, encompassing the complete project process — from initial concept to final execution.

Miljan P. Salata, born in 1992 in Belgrade. He studied and graduated in architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, in the class of Professor V. Lojanica. During his master's studies, he was engaged in 3 departments of the Faculty of Architecture, where he worked as a student demonstrator in several subjects. After completing his studies, he went to Beijing, where he interned at the Office of Architect Ole Schereen for over a year, gaining extensive experience working on "mega" projects of world architecture.

In the ZDL architectural bureau from Rijeka, he worked for a full 6 years, actively engaged in architectural design and interior design. In the same bureau, he was part of a team that won awards in significant urban-architectural competitions in Croati - the reconstruction of the Paromlin Library in Zagreb and Hotel Grabovac. At the end of 2024, he founded a private practice, NUR Studio, primarily oriented towards professional renders and architectural visualizations. He is a regular participant in regional and international competitions, where he has won several awards in cooperation with the 4MIND bureau, among which the most notable are the projects of the new building of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Natural History Museum in Podgorica, as well as the Museum of the First World War and the Documentation Center within the Memorial Complex on Mount Cer, and the building of the Music Academy in Dorćol (FMU).

He is one of the founders of the Sfera Podcast on Architecture and the culture of public spaces, as well as the recently launched Sfera Forum, a meeting place for local creatives in public space, for which he recently received the Ranko Radović Award from the ULUPUDS association, as well as a great appreciation from the Society of Conservators of Serbia for outstanding contribution to the protection of architectural heritage in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

He loves skiing, philosophy, and electronic music.

Ivana Petronijević was born in Zagreb, and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade. She has been active as an architect since 2002 in the sphere of designing, investing, developing and realizing projects from the field of residential buildings, through business complexes to hotels, largely realized in Serbia, Greece and Italy.

She started his first architectural steps in the construction team of the Church of St. Sava in Belgrade, then became part of the team in the Atelier Eva Vaništa Lazarević project office. She continues her professional development through cooperation with architectural bureaus in Athens and Thessaloniki, and from 2013 to 2016 she was part of the RS Ministry of Defense team responsible for the development and construction of military facilities. Since 2017, he has been part of the Alumil YU Industry company as an architect consultant on projects. He is actively engaged in market research in Serbia and the region in order to expand opportunities for the development of the company and clients.

She believes that every professional, in addition to mandatory continuous professional development, must have and nurture social responsibility. She speaks English, German and Greek.

Director of the company ift Rosenheim Hrvatska d.o.o., partner of the German institute for construction products ift Rosenheim Germany GmbH. With 20 years of experience in the field of certification and laboratory testing of construction carpentry. In 2002, he graduated in wood technology at the Faculty of Forestry, University of Zagreb.

After graduation, employed at the certification company Euroinspekt d.d. responsible for laboratory testing and certification of building products - parquet, floors, wooden structures, windows, doors, facades. In 2012, he joined the largest German institute for window technology, ift Rosenheim GmbH, as an expert responsible for the implementation of European standards and the certification of construction carpentry in Slovenia and Croatia.

In 2017, he became the sales director of ift Rosenheim for the Balkan region (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina) with a focus on testing and certifying windows and doors.

From 2018 to today, he is the director of the company ift Rosenheim Hrvatska d.o.o. responsible for the development and business results of the ift Rosenheim institute with a focus on laboratory testing and certification of construction carpentry, education of manufacturers/clients regarding CE marking of construction carpentry, and mandatory testing and certification of windows and doors according to European Union norms/standards.

Vladimir Tasevski was born in Belgrade, where he had finished The First Belgrade Gymnasium, and then graduated in foreign trade from the Higher School of Economics. For a long time, he lived and worked in Iraq and Switzerland. Since 1998, he has been working for the German company VEKA, the world's leading manufacturer of PVC profile systems for windows and doors. As a regional representative, he has been representing, promoting and expanding the company since its appearance in this region.

As a highly professional, responsible and experienced person, he has led VEKA to occupy a very high position in the construction carpentry market in the southern Balkans, and has contributed to the constant increase in the number of partners and annual turnover. In 2023, he was awarded a recognition for 25 years of work, success and merit by the VEKA parent company.

Vladimir is married and has two children. In addition to tennis, which he plays recreationally, he also enjoys skiing, scuba diving, sailing and hiking. He is a big fan of traveling and discovering new countries and cultures.

Dragana Korica is a licensed architect with a Master's degree in Architecture from the University of Belgrade - Faculty of Architecture. She has been serving as the Executive Director of the Serbia Green Building Council (SrbGBC) since 2017.

She is dedicated to achieving the organization's goals that promote and lead the transformation of the Serbian construction sector and built environment towards green and sustainable practices. Driven by the motivation for necessary sectoral improvement towards sustainability, she advocates for making the topic of the positive impact of implementing green principles on the environment accessible to all relevant stakeholders in the sector and the broader public.

Dr. Bojan Tepavčević is a full professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad, head of the doctoral studies in architecture, and a member of the Center for Digital Design. He earned his PhD in architecture at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, researching the relationship between geometry, space, and contemporary technologies, for which he was awarded the international Trimo Award in Ljubljana for the best doctoral dissertation.

He is the founder of the design-technology studio DDC-make, which, as an academic spin-off, connects parametric and generative design with applied architectural, industrial, and energy-efficient solutions. He has received numerous awards at international competitions and professional events for his contributions to digital techniques and innovations in architecture. His professional interests focus on the digital transformation of architectural practice, the development of sustainable design strategies, and the integration of design, analysis, and fabrication.

Marija Šipetić-Bjegović, M.Arch., born on January 21, 1971, in Čačak, stands out as an ambitious, innovative, and confident leader in the field of architecture and engineering. After completing elementary school in Lučani and attending Filip Filipović Gymnasium in Čačak, where she specialized in programming, she enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade in 1990, laying the foundation for her passionate career in architecture.

Her professional journey began in 2003 at Progres, a company based in Belgrade, where she worked as a construction-technical advisor in the Engineering sector. As the chief engineer, Marija played a key role in the execution of large-scale and challenging projects in Russia and Serbia, gaining extensive experience in the management and implementation of complex construction solutions.

Her career took a significant turn in 2008 when she joined Alu Koenig Stahl d.o.o. in Belgrade as a technical service advisor. Alu Koenig Stahl, the official representative of the renowned German manufacturer Schüco, provided Marija with an opportunity to innovate and recognize the potential of new technologies in the industry. Her visionary approach quickly led to business advancements.

After just two years, Marija was promoted to Head of the Technical Bureau, where she and her team made a substantial contribution to the design of glazed façade structures for numerous prestigious projects in Belgrade and across Serbia, solidifying her status as one of the leading experts in the industry.

In March 2022, Marija Šipetić-Bjegović assumed the position of General Manager in Serbia, becoming a key figure in the management of the parent company, Alu Koenig Stahl GmbH. As the first woman in the company's 170-year history to hold this position, her journey serves as a symbol of professional excellence, leadership, and continuous advancement in the construction industry.