Arhitektri: Two Houses
Within the framework of the Annual Exhibition of Realizations by Croatian Architects in 2010, which is set to take place at the end of the week in Split, the Croatian Architects’ Association (CAA) will confer their awards for the most successful Croatian architects’ realizations in 2010 both in Croatia and abroad.
The nominated realizations contending for the ‘Bernardo Bernardi’, ‘Drago Galić’ and ‘Viktor Kovačić’ Awards, respectively, were featured here, while all nominated projects will be presented within the next couple of weeks.
Today we present the “Two Houses” in Bratovići, in the Istrian District of Tinjan, whose authors are young architects for the Arhitektri Studio; Rujana Bergam Marković, Boška Bahtijarević and Aleksandar Marković, a project contending for the Drago Galić Award.
Scroll down for more details on the project:
In working on this project the main question that was raised was how to integrate a contemporary facility into the existing ambient of a small Istrian town, how to incorporate something modern into the existing area, which in itself entails a string of details and functions that considerably vary from the rural image of surrounding households, all the while striving to keep the balance with the community in general.
The investors’ request (two friends) was that two identical country retreats be situated on the lot with a joint swimming pool and accompanying details. During the designing process local structures and materials were researched in detail, particularly the way in which the materials (primarily stone) were used, shaped and experienced. The path led from traditional Istrian Casitas to family estates. The Casita as the most primitive structural form, but with a clear and well-defined outline (wall, opening, roof) and fascinating stacked-stone structure alongside the family estate as a group of separate facilities which function as a whole.
It was attempted to unite these concepts so as to create not only new structures in space, but for the purpose of those new facilities complementing the situation and environment without disturbing tradition or unnecessarily imposing themselves.
The abovementioned contemplations resulted in a house that follows the clear and simple contours of the neighboring facilities (rectangular ground-plan, angled roof), which with its three-way restrictedness quite clearly defines the completely open fourth side. Furthermore, with its stone-lined facade and roof it directly communicates with the location it is situated in a subtle, but expressively individual manner.
The dialogue between the old and the new is established by the entirety of the two houses and the supporting storeroom as a perfect counterpart to the neighboring family estates that encompass several facilities within their property, and by shaping, structure and texture at the same time clearly separate the private from the public, allowing the creation of an intimate contemporary ambient.
*click here to download the site situation in pdf format
*click here to download the plans in pdf format
*click here to download sections and elevations in pdf format
Designing started in: 2007
Completion in: 2010
Location area: 2.179 m2
Total layout area: 384 m2
Authors:
‘ARHITEKTRI’ – Rujana Bergam Marković, Boška Bahtijarević i Aleksandar Marković
Photographs:
Miljenko Bernfest
