HRVOJE NJIRIC LUNCH TALK
Jan 20, 2016
By Katharine Graham
The lecture began with a main square as an emblem of a meeting ground for both people and collections of architectural styles as they have accumulated over time. The question becomes how a city preserves its history while maintaining a representation of daily life. Split, a city on the Adriatic Coast, was originally created as a summer palace. Initially designed with a private space surrounding a central public thoroughfare, present day function has pushed through this strict system and instilled instead pockets of ownership. Though modernism changes the function of the city itself, it is able to “accept alterations without losing any major consistency” thus remaining useful. Below are a few projects designed by Hrvoje Njiric + Arhitekti that encompass these underlying design principles.
With the Gypsies’ Hybrid Structure, the moral dilemma was between disregarding
the gypsies’ illegal homes or incorporating them. The final decision was to
create two separate entities of private domains connected by a central stage.
In doing so, the project protected the existing environment that the gypsies
had established, while introducing new programmatic elements to the space.
Palazzo Bolognese is a constructed representation of traditional vernacular architecture through the
use of a familiar arched facade. While the exterior remains static the interior
function remains ever changing. The arches become the frames for what happens within
the building as modern “life punched into the Roman structure.”
Baumaxx Hypermarket re-thought the pre-existing American shopping complex of the 1950’s as not just a building
surrounded by parking but as a series of buildings that together begin to create
corridors of public space. The buildings are strategically located to form a
perimeter to both enclose the parking as well as provide a major facade on
which to advertise and anchor the structure as a whole. The remaining facades
acknowledge the bypassing car traffic through ornamental reflectors that
capture the light and movement produced by the cars.
Kindergarten MB began with understanding of site conditions. Adjacent to the site is a massive nine
story building that overshadows its surroundings. The solution to this was to alter
the typical mat typology by folding it to form an “L” massing. In doing so the
gardens become terraces and the playground moves to the rooftop. In addition
all the services of the building (financial offices and kitchens) are moved to
the perimeter of the main circulation paths that become moments of educational
reality for the children.
For more information follow this link: http://www.archdaily.com/tag/hrvoje-njiric-arhitekti