intervju iskanje odgovorov finding answers na nova vprašanja to new questions intervju s Sašo Randićem interview with Saša Randić Sonja Miculinić Sonja Miculinić Foto: Peter Krapež Na Piranskih dnevih arhitekture ste predstavili svoj pogled na nove izzive v arhitekturi. Bi morda o tej temi povedali še kaj? Tema se nanaša predvsem novo situacijo, ki je danes vsekakor drugačna od tiste pred letom dni. Na piranskih dnevih je imenovana novi izzivi, na konferenci ČIP (Čovjek i prostor – Človek in prostor) pred enim letom, pa smo jo mi poimenovali »spremembe«. Že takrat je več dogodkov napovedovalo neko novo obdobje, drugačno od prejšnjih, v katerih so se stvari dogajale bolj postopno. Finančna kriza je radikalno spremenila odnose v svetu. S prihodom Baracka Obame se je spremenila tudi globalna politika. Včasih so bile vse arhitekture ikonične, danes se vse vrti okoli »zelene« arhitekture. Še nekaj zelo zanimivega se je zgodilo v povezavi z Obamo. Koncept mest, kakršna so v Ameriki gradili od 40ih let dalje, se je spremenil. Takrat so prevzeli model individualnega stanovanja, ki je najprej pogoltnilo ameriški prostor, potem pa še evropskega. Madrid se je v zadnjih petnajstih letih povečal dvakrat, prebivalstvo pa je narastlo za samo pet odstotkov. Torej mesta postajajo disperzna. V predavanju in predstavitvi naših del sem se najbolj osredotočil na problem mesta, ker menim, da bodo mesta tema, s katero se bo arhitektura v prihodnosti največ ukvarjala. In to je dobro. Obenem pa sem kritičen glede letošnje nagradi Piranesi, ker menim, da je v današnjem času in posebej na temo »Novi izzivi«, nesmiselno prikazovati večinoma dizajnerske projekte. Glavna tema nagrajenega dela je, kako kombinirati materiale in kako ujeti svetlobo. Menim, da je to dosti manj pomembno od tega, na kakšen način arhitektura oblikuje mesta. Slovenija, Hrvaška, Bosna in Madžarska so redko poseljene dežele, v katerih je pomembno, kako se gradi mesta. Gotovo bodo ta zopet postala predmet zanimanja, čeprav je diskontinuiteta kulturnih, političnih in zgodovinskih dejstev pripeljala do tega, da se nobeno mesto zadnjih sto ali dvesto let ni moglo neprekinjeno razvijati. Zaradi tega nobeno mesto tega območja nima formata pravega mesta, kakršni sta na primer Barcelona ali Milano. Ta mesta imajo strukturo, ki se jo počasi dopolnjuje. V naših mestih so to odseki različnih plasti in časov. V Reki je na primer zaradi tega zelo vidna razlika med vzhodnim in zahodnim delom mesta. Vzhodni del mesta, ki je bil pod vladavino kralja Aleksandra, se je razvijal po eni tipologiji, zahodni pa, ki je bil At the Piran Days of Architecture, you presented your views on new challenges in architecture. Is there anything else that you’d like to say on the subject? It’s all about this new situation we’re having at the moment, which is definitely different to that of one year ago. At the Piran Days of Architecture, the topic is called “new challenges”, while at the ČIP (Čovjek i prostor, Man and space) conference, which we held a year ago, we called it “changes”. Even then, several events foreshadowed some kind of a new era, different than previous ones when things happened more gradually. The financial crisis radically changed relations all over the world, and with the arrival of Barack Obama, global politics changed, too. All architectures used to be iconic, whereas nowadays, “green” architecture is all the rage. Another very interesting thing happened in connection with Obama: the concept of cities which were being built in America since the 1940s changed. Back then, they adopted the model of individual residence, which first swallowed the American space and went on to swallow the European space. Madrid has grown by a factor of two in the last fifteen years, yet the population has only risen by five percent. This means that cities are becoming dispersive. In the lecture and the presentation of our works, I focused primarily on the issue of the city because I believe that cities will be the topic with which architecture is going to deal with the most in the future. And that’s good. At the same time, I’m critical of this year’s Piranesi Award because I think that in this day and age, and especially on the topic of “new challenges”, it makes no sense presenting mostly designer projects. The main topic of the work that won the award is how to combine materials and capture light. I think this is far less important than the issue of how cities are shaped by architecture. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Hungary are sparsely populated countries, where it matters greatly how cities are built. Cities are bound to become interesting again, even though due to the discontinuity of cultural, political, and historical facts, no city was able to enjoy uninterrupted development in the past one or two hundred years. This is why no city in this area has the format of a proper city such as Barcelona or Milan. These cities have a structure that is slowly being added to. In our cities, these are sections of different layers and different times. SLO ENG pod italijansko jurisdikcijo, ima čisto drugačno tipologijo. Na teh prostorih je odnos arhitekture in mesta, oziroma način, na katerega zgradba gradi javni prostor okoli sebe, zelo pomemben. V tem kontekstu sem želel skozi par projektov pokazati, kako smo mi reagirali na takšne situacije. Prvi je bil projekt šole v Krku. Na njem se jasno vidi odnos javnega in zasebnega prostora. Zaradi svoje lokacije je šola urbani projekt, ki pa s svojo velikostjo presega povprečno strukturo mesta. Šole ne bi bilo smiselno zapreti in je ločiti od mesta, zato smo malo uličico med šolo in bodočo dvorano izkoristili kot prostor, kjer se šola in mesto zlijeta v eno: ko odzvoni šolski odmor, učenci zavzamejo ulico. Zgodba zelo dobro deluje, seveda tudi zato, ker je Krk malo mestece. Dober primer na temo javnih prostorov in integracije stavb v urbano okolje je lapidarij v Novigradu, kjer se zgradba nahaja sredi parka. Celotni mali muzej se lahko odpre v okoliški prostor in zelo dobro funkcionira za razstave, recitale in koncerte. Zgradba samostana na Trsatu je povezana z prihodom Papeža na Reko. Stavba naj bi vsebovala prostore za vernike, sanitarije, lokalček ter večnamensko dvorano. Predstavlja osnovni, rudimentarni, veliki volumen, ki je v odnosu do baročne strukture samostana. Eksperimentirali smo s fasadnim plaščem. Naš cilj je bil pridobiti odprtine za svetlobo, pri tem pa zadržati homogeno formo. Zato smo se odločili za lupino, ki se je prebodena z majhnimi odprtinami. Zgradba ima betonsko strešno konstrukcijo pokrito s terracoto, ki je elementaren, a vseeno novodoben material, kakršnega uporablja tudi na primer Renzo Piano. Iz njega smo dobili streho, ki deluje kot prezračena fasada, plošče pa so bile nameščene ročno, tako da streha prepušča dovolj svetlobe v notranji prostor. Kompleks Zagrad je komercialni projekt, ki ga je financirala banka Hypo Alpe Adria. V takšnih projektih je arhitekt le eno od kolesc v velikanskem procesu. Za nameček smo v projekt vstopili, ko je bila garaža že gotova, torej je bila matrica projekta že definirana. Vsak del stavbe z različno vsebino ima drugačno fasado, na vrhu pa so stanovanja. Pri projektu Hartera se je začelo tako, da so ljudje okrog skupine Let 3 dali iniciativo, da se poišče prostor za organizacijo glasbenih dogodkov. V Reki obstaja veliko zapuščenih industrijskih prostorov in najbolj logična izbira se nam je zdela stara papirnica Hartera. To je bilo politično občutljivo vprašanje, ker je papirnica najstarejša tovarna v tem delu Evrope, iz leta 1820. Namesto projektov za gradnjo smo v njej pred petimi leti organizirali festival Hartera. Bil je zelo uspešen in stvari so se začele razpletati. Najprej smo določili lastniške odnose, mesto je zavzelo stališče, da želi stavbo spremeniti v kulturni center in mi smo začeli delati prve urbanistične rešitve. Ker je naša administracija zelo temeljita, se projekt vleče že pet let, zajela pa nas je tudi gospodarska kriza, tako da projekt zamuja. Kljub vsemu pa že dobiva svoje končne konture. Želeli smo ustvariti čisto nov del mesta. Vsaka od bivših industrijskih con mora dobiti svoj lastni karakter, ne morejo kar vse povprek postati muzeji ali mladinski centri, temveč mora vsaka imeti neko svojo specifiko. Preurejanje bivših industrijskih območij pa je tudi velika priložnost za mesto, saj se bo v njih zgodila Reka 21. stoletja. Naša lokacija zaenkrat še ni infrastrukturno urejena in je mesto eksperimenta. V sosednji stavbi smo ustanovili Hartera hotel: zgradbo smo spremenili v kamp, torej se v njej spi v šotorih. Oprema so odpisani rekviziti iz gledališča, lestenci so ventilatorji z obešenimi vrečami za smeti. Vse je bilo zelo poceni, učinek pa je ogromen. Zadnji projekt je vrtec v Krku. V območje novih apartmajskih gradenj smo vstavili mini urbanizem – vrtec, ki je kot majhno mesto, z dvorišči in trgom. Obkroženo je tudi z obzidjem. Iz prefabriciranih betonskih elementov, v katere so vgrajeni kamni, ki spominjajo na tipologijo gromače – tradicionalnega primorskega suhozida. Zanimiva je bila otvoritev vrtca, na kateri so predstavniki vlade peli otroške pesmice in z tem ustvarili dodano vrednost svečanosti dogodka. In Rijeka for instance, there is a big difference between the eastern and western part of the city as a consequence. The eastern part of the city, which was under the rule of King Alexander, developed according to one typology, whereas the western part, which was under the Italian jurisdiction, has a completely different typology. In these areas, the attitude towards architecture and the city, as well as the way a building builds the public space around it, is very important. In this context, I wanted to use a couple of project to show how we reacted to situations like these. The first one was a school in Krk. Looking at this project, you can clearly see the relationship between public and private space. Due to its location, the school is an urban project, yet it’s bigger in size than the average town structure. It would make no sense walling the school in and separating it from the town, so we used the little street between the school and the future hall as the space where the school and the town fuse into one: when the school bell goes off, pupils occupy the street. It works really well, with one major factor being that Krk is a very small town. When it comes to public spaces and the integration of buildings into the urban environment, the lapidarium in Novigrad, where we placed the building in the middle of the park, is a good example. The entire small museum is able to open itself to the surrounding space and works very well for exhibitions, recitals, and concerts. The monastery building in Trsat had to do with the Pope’s visit to Rijeka. The building was supposed to contain spaces for worshippers, facilities, a small café and a multi-purpose hall. It represents the basic, rudimentary, large volume in relation to the Baroque structure of the monastery. We experimented with the facade skin. Our goal was to have openings for the light and retain homogenous form at the same time. This is why we chose a shell that’s pierced with small openings. The building has a concrete roof construction covered with terracotta, which is an elementary material, but it still has its use today, such as in the way Renzo Piano does for instance. This gave us a roof that works as a ventilated facade, and the tiles were installed by hand so that enough light is let through into the interior space by the roof. The complex of Zagrad is a commercial project financed by Hypo Alpe Adria bank. When it comes to such projects, the architect is just a cog in a humongous process. And on top of that, we came on board when the garage was already built, therefore the project’s template had already been defined. Each part of the building with different content has a different facade, and there are flats on the top. The Hartera project started with people around music group Let 3 giving the initiative to find a place to organise music events. There are a lot of abandoned industrial spaces in Rijeka and to us, the most logical choice seemed an old paper mill called Hartera. This was a politically sensitive question since the paper mill is the oldest factory in this part of Europe, from the year 1820. Five years ago, instead of making construction designs, we organised the Hartera festival inside. It was very successful and from then on, things started to develop and go our way. First, we settled the issue of ownership, the city decided to support the idea of turning the building into a cultural centre, and we began drafting the first urbanistic solutions. Because our administration is very thorough, the project has been dragging on for five years, and we’ve also been hit by the crisis, so the project is behind schedule. Still, we have recently entered the final stage. What we wanted to do was to create a completely new part of the town. Each of the former industrial estates has to be given its own character, they can’t all just be turned into museums or youth centres, each of them has to have a specificity of its own. The development of former industrial areas is also a big opportunity for the city, because that’s where Rijeka of the 21st century is going to happen. Our location has not yet been set up with utilities and is a place of experiment. In the neighbouring building, we set up Hotel Hartera. We turned the building into a camp, which means that you sleep in a tent. It’s equipped with write-off theatre props, and we made ceiling fans into chandeliers by hanging bin liners off them. Everything was very cheap to do, but it works beautifully. The final project is the kindergarten in Krk. We instilled the area of new tourist- flat buildings with miniature urbanism -a kindergarten made to be like a small intervju Ste vsestranski arhitekt, ukvarjate se z projektiranjem, publicistiko in s projekti ki zahtevajo družbeni angažma. Menim, da je arhitektura sama po sebi v takem kontekstu bolj zanimiva. Pri nas se ne moremo ukvarjati z arhitekturo na tak način kot v Ameriki, da celo življenje projektiraš en tip stavb. RandićTurato smo arhitekti splošne prakse, kakor tudi večina arhitektov na Hrvaškem, in to je naša prednost. V današnjem trenutku samo projektirati ni dovolj, na dogajanje v prostoru je treba skušati vplivati tudi na druge načine. Torej ne samo skozi projekte, ampak tudi skozi aktivno sodelovanje v diskusiji. V preteklih letih je na Hrvaškem vladala zelo ugodna arhitekturna klima. Srečo sem imel, da sem bil protagonist teh dogajanj. Razvilo se je ugodno sodelovanje med zbornico in združenjem arhitektov, poleg tega pa je obstajala tudi obveza, da arhitekti sodelujejo v društvih arhitektov. Tako so društva uspela obdržati vlogo, ki so jo imela v socializmu, to je jasno in direktno sodelovanje v družbenem dialogu. Velikokrat sem slišal kritike, da arhitekti ne marajo javno nastopati, kar drži. Pripravljeni pa so bili sodelovati v okviru strukture društva. Tako so društva uspela obdržati vlogo organizatorjev arhitekturnih natečajev oziroma, vzpostaviti pravilo, da se vse pomembne stavbe na Hrvaškem izvajajo prek natečaja. To je bilo mogoče, ker bilo vzdušje pozitivno, ker so pri uresničevanju arhitekti delovali organizirano in vse to uresničili na tem prostoru in v tem času. Oblikovala se je močna arhitekturna scena, katere protagonisti so večinoma mlajši arhitekti. Normalno je, da nekdo, ki ima ambicijo spreminjati prostor, kar je primarna definicija vsega, kar arhitekt dela, presega okvirje oblikovanja, in se poda v druge sfere, v katerih prostor postane protagonist javnega dialoga. Konkretni primer Hartere, ki je na nek način tudi ambicija po kreativnem eksperimentu, je dokaz, da se premiki ne zgodijo samo s projektiranjem, ampak pogosto kot ozadje zahtevajo aktivno javno delovanje. Arhitekturna klima je morda povzročila, da vam je na Hrvaškem uspelo realizirati več zanimivih, transgresivnih projektov, kot nam jih je uspelo v Sloveniji. Ali je težko biti arhitekt v tranzicijski Hrvaški? Momenta sta tukaj dva. Vsekakor menim, da sta na področju bivše Jugoslavije Hrvaška in Slovenija arhitekturno najzanimivejši, kar potrjujejo tudi mednarodne nagrade, razstave in objave v revijah. Med njima pa morda obstajajo drobne razlike, ki so pogojene z različnostjo mentalitete. Na Hrvaškem vsak pretres izzove novo priložnost. Lepota delovanja na Hrvaškem je ravno dejstvo, da se nahaja na prostoru, kjer so se sistemi nenehno spreminjali. Z vsakim novim sistemom, na katerega nimaš vpliva in ga obenem imaš, moraš vzpostaviti dialog in glede nanj usmeriti svoje individualno delovanje. Zagreb, kljub temu da ima Hrvaška že zelo dolgo tradicijo državnosti, pogosto ni bil v poziciji, ko bi imel, znotraj 'monarhije', vpliv na vse segmente svojega razvoja. Tega vpliva ni imel niti kasneje v obdobju socializma, verjetno pa ga ne bo imel niti, ko bomo enkrat vstopili v Evropsko unijo. Zato smo razvili poseben način delovanja in razmišljanja. Pričakovati je, da se bo tudi v novih spremembah nastajala kvalitetna arhitektura, kot se je to na primer zgodilo v 50ih letih dvajsetega stoletja. Živite in delujete na Reki. Kaj bi v tem mestu želeli spremeniti? V razvoju mesta Reka so bile nekatere stvari že davno začrtane na način, ki je univerzalno sprejet, sedaj pa se čudimo, da se nekatere stvari niso uspele realizirati. V mislih imam predvsem na premestitev luke ven iz centra mesta in odpiranje mesta proti morju. Krivda delno leži v načinu, kako se pri nas upravlja prostor. Občina Reka je prej obsegala veliko večje območje, sedaj pa je skrčena znotraj meja najožjega centra. Celotno mestno obrobje ni več pod upravo mesta in njegovega župana. Niti pristaniški bazen ni pod nadzorom mesta, ampak ga nadzira država, tako da je upravljanje tega prostora izjemno zapleteno. Obstajajo seveda tudi ugodni primeri reševanja podobnih zapletov. Eden od teh je Bilbao, kjer so se za isto mizo usedli predstavniki države, regije, občine, pristanišča in železnice. Pri nas pa težava nastane prav na nivoju komunikacije. Ob vstopu v EU se ne bo nič kaj dosti spremenilo. Mislim pa, da bi se morali ozirati po uspešne primere v Španiji, kot sta na primer Barcelona in Valencia. city, complete with courtyards and a square. There’s also a wall around it made from prefabricated concrete elements encrusted with stones whose typology is reminiscent of gromača, a traditional dry wall from the Littoral. The opening ceremony for the kindergarten was very interesting, there were government officials singing children’s songs, which added greatly to the solemnity of the event. As an architect, you do many things; you design, you write, and you get involved with project that require social commitment. I think that architecture itself is more interesting in such a context. Here, we can’t do architecture the same way they do it in the United States, where you can spend your whole life designing only one type of building. Randić-Turato is an office of general practice, and most architects in Croatia work in a similar way, which works to our advantage. In this day and age, just doing the design isn’t enough, you have to try and influence what happens in the space in different ways, too -not only through projects but also through active participation in discussion. In the past years, there was a very conductive architectural atmosphere in Croatia. I was fortunate to have been a protagonist in these developments. A good working relationship developed between the national chamber of architects and the architects’ association, and the law stipulated that as an architect, you had to take part in associations. This is how associations managed to retain the role that they had in the Socialist period, namely a clear and direct involvement in social dialogue. I’ve often heard criticism how architects don’t like appearing in public, which is true. But they were prepared to take part within the framework of the association. This way, the associations managed to retain their role of organising architecture competitions and succeeded in establishing the rule that a tender should be put out for any important building in Croatia. This was made possible by a positive atmosphere, because architects organised themselves to make this happen, and they did all that in the space and time of today. A strong architectural scene developed, and its protagonists are mostly younger architects. It’s only natural for someone who has an ambition of modifying the space, which is the primary definition of everything an architect does, to go beyond mere design and enter into other spheres in which the space becomes the protagonist of public dialogue. The case of Hartera, for instance -which is in a way also an ambition of carrying out a creative experiment -is a proof, that changes don’t happen only by designing, but often require active public involvement as their background. The architectural climate may have been crucial for you to have managed to build a greater number of interesting, transgressive projects in Croatia than we have in Slovenia. Considering it’s still going through transition, is it difficult to be an architect in Croatia? I see two issues at work here. I certainly believe that in the territory of former Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia are the most interesting architecturally, which international prizes, exhibitions, and peer-review publications also confirm. But there may be subtle differences between the two that are conditioned by differing mentalities. In Croatia, every shock also brings out a new opportunity. The beauty of working in Croatia is precisely the fact that it’s located in an area where systems have always been subject to constant change. With each new system, over which you have no influence and yet you do, you have to establish a dialogue and apply your individual activity according to it. Even though there is a long tradition of Croatia as a state, Zagreb was, within the “monarchy”, often not in a position to have influence over all segments of its development. Later, during the Socialist period, it didn’t have this influence, either, nor is it likely to have it once we join the EU. This is why we have developed a special way of acting and thinking. It’s to be expected, even with all the new changes, that quality architecture will continue to be created, like it did in the 1950s, for example. You live and work in Rijeka. What would you like to change about the city? In the course of Rijeka’s development, some things had been decided upon in an universally accepted way a long time ago, and now everybody is wondering how we didn’t manage to make certain things happen. What I have in mind is chiefly moving the port out of the city centre and the opening of the city towards the SLO ENG Reka kot izhodišče, Zagreb kot drugo mesto delovanja. Ali obstaja razlika v načinu delovanja arhitektov v teh dveh okoljih? Hrvaška je premajhna država … Še posebej pa Reka in Zagreb, ki sta del ene celote z nekaj nedotaknjene narave vmes. Hrvaška je dežela mest, z glavnim središčem v Zagrebu, ki pa vseeno ni tako močno, kot je to izraženo npr. v Ljubljani. V Zagrebu sem prisoten tudi zaradi biroja, ki ga imamo tam, poleg tega pa sem na spletu sprožil majhen privatni projekt, ki je eksperiment povezovanja virtualnega in realnega prostora. Z blogom skušam ustvarjati komunikacijo, to pa je, vsaj mislim, za arhitekturo zelo pomembno. Izdali ste že več knjig. Ali imate v načrtu še kakšen tovrsten projekt? Idis Turato skupaj z Vero Grimmer pripravlja materiale o arhitektu Ostrogoviću, jaz pa v Društvu arhitektov skušam časopis ČIP postaviti na stabilno komercialno osnovo. Situacija na Hrvaškem je pokazala, da obstaja prostor tudi za privatne projekte – npr. časopis Oris je konkreten primer, kako je lahko revija zelo uspešna in kvalitetna tudi brez institucionalne podpore. Uporabniki informacij so danes postali tudi nosilci informacij in to skozi forume, bloge in lastne spletne strani. Blog, ki sem ga ustvaril, je zame zelo zanimiv medij. Zanima me če bosta komunikacija in delo na blogu imela vpliv na način dela v našem biroju. Vsekakor pa je to zame interesanten prostor delovanja. Na kateri projektih trenutno delate? Trenutno se gradi šola Veli Vrh v Puli, projektiramo pa tudi hotel v Rovinju. Zanimivo je, da je v recesiji najbolj stabilen investitor turistični sektor, tako da imamo trenutno na mizi še nekaj projektov za turistične objekte Kaj je vaš osebni izziv v arhitekturi? Novi izzivi ležijo v iskanju novih odgovorov na nova vprašanja. Stvari se počasi umirjajo in v kontekstu našega vsakdana ne bo več prihajalo do velikih sprememb. Od nas se je vedno pričakovalo, da so stavbe učinkovite, poceni, družbeno smotrne, in da ustvarjajo dialog s prostorom, v katerem se nahajajo. Skratka, da ne zadovoljujejo izključno interesov investitorja. V tem je specifičnost evropskega prostora, ker zunaj Evrope pa takih omejitev pravzaprav ni. Fasciniralo me je na primer predavanje Césare Pellija v Buenos Airesu, ki je z veliko lahkotnostjo opisoval svoje odločitve pri projektiranju zgradb, tudi dvajsetkrat večjih od okoliških. Njegova neobremenjenost s kontekstom je nekaj, česar pri nas ne poznamo. Na nove izzive gledam z optimizmom. Pri nas še nič ni uspelo, zato ne bo uspela niti kriza. sea. The way we manage space is part of the problem. The area of the municipality of Rijeka used to be much bigger whereas now, it has contracted to the very centre of the city. The entire city periphery is now no longer governed by the city and its mayor. Not even the port basin is under the city’s control, it’s controlled by the state, which means that managing this space is extremely complicated. Naturally, there are cases of competent handling of such issues. One such case is Bilbao, where the representatives of the state, the region, the municipality, the port, and the railway all sat down at the same table. With us, it’s precisely the communication where problems develop. Joining the EU won’t change much in this respect. But I definitely think that we should look up to Spain as to how such issues were dealt with there, e.g. in Barcelona and Valencia. Rijeka as your point of origin, Zagreb as your second working place. Is there a difference between these two environments in terms of how architects work? Croatia is too small of a country -especially Rijeka and Zagreb, which are parts of the same whole with a bit of pristine nature in between. Croatia is the land of cities and towns, indeed with Zagreb as it centre, yet this centre is not quite as strong as is the case with Ljubljana, for example. I spend time in Zagreb also because we have an office there, and there is a small private project that I started on the Internet, which is an experiment in linking the virtual and the real space. With my blog, I’m trying to create communication, which is, at least in my opinion, a very important thing for architecture. You’ve published several books. Have you any more in the pipeline? Idis Turato and Vera Grimmer are preparing materials about architect Ostrogović, and I’m trying to lay a solid commercial foundation for the Architects’ Society ČIP magazine. The situation in Croatia has shown that there is room for private projects, as well -magazine Oris, for example, is a case of how a magazine can be very successful and very good even without institutional support. People who use information are nowadays also people who spread information through Internet forums, blogs, and their own web pages. I find the blog I created to be a very interesting medium. I’m curious to find out whether the communication on the blog and the work I’m putting into it will influence the way we work in our office. Either way, it’s a very interesting area of involvement for me personally. What projects are you working on currently? At the moment, school Veli Vrh in Pula is being built, and we’re designing a hotel in Rovinj. It’s interesting how during the recession, the tourist sector is the most steady investor, in that we have a couple more tourist building projects on the table. What personal challenge do you find in architecture? New challenges lie in finding answers to new questions. Things are slowly settling down and in terms of our daily lives, there won’t be any major changes any more. People have always expected from us to deliver buildings that are efficient, good value for money, make sense socially, and form a dialogue with the space in which they are put. In other words, that they don’t fulfil only the investor’s requirements. This is the specificity of the European space -outside Europe, you aren’t really limited in this way. I was fascinated by César Pelli’s lecture in Buenos Aires where he talked with incredible levity about how he went about designing buildings that were twenty times the size of the neighbouring ones. How was not in the least concerned with the context is something you just don’t see in Europe. I’m optimistic about new challenges. Nothing ever works out well in Croatia, so the crisis won’t, either.