Miris Garden

University of Belgrade, Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade, Serbia

Project idea

During the design process, there is an interweaving of rational elements and free imagination. The overall outcome depends on a good result at all levels of work. One part of the design process is the problematization of the task itself. During design, we do not encounter certain commonalities, since architecture is not a rounded system of values. Therefore, it happens that a "mistake" is made - failure to recognize the problem, the solution of which is crucial for the further continuation of work. In order to avoid such mistakes, it is necessary that, as an architect, when considering his own project idea, he should come up with a few more, so that he could compare them with each other and see all their merits and demerits. Only in this way is it possible to progress and design architecture that bears the true author's stamp every time.
Starigrad is a settlement and a small port on the shore of the Velebit Channel, located near the Paklenica National Park, 45 km south of Karlobag. This place was first mentioned in Roman times. It was built on the foundations of the ancient ancient city of Argiruntum, and today it is the center of the Paklenica Riviera, a 20 km stretch of coast where the mountains and the sea touch.

Project description

The location itself covers 170,000 m2. The terrain is steep and this fact represented an additional challenge during the design process. During the review of the location of the selected competition (Starigrad - Croatia), numerous shortcomings were observed, but also numerous advantages. One of the biggest advantages of the location is the fact that it has a large number of different types of high and low, arranged and unarranged greenery. The biggest disadvantage of the location is the very composition and appearance of the terrain, that is, accessibility is difficult. During the design, the focus of the future holiday resort was placed on individual, single-family villas and accompanying public space, in the form of commercial content, beaches and promenades. Also, a hotel was designed, as well as three- and four-story buildings with apartments.
The process of designing individual villas was started by noticing a "pattern" that is repeated in the vision of existing buildings located in the immediate vicinity of the site. The goal was to create the impression of a whole from individual objects. In order to achieve dynamism, the buildings have different single-gable, two-gable and four-gable roofs, which form the seal of the building. That is, if the visitor looks at a row of villas from the shore, he will get the impression of continuity. Also contributing to the dynamics is the fact that the buildings were not designed in a single, straight line, but there were horizontal and vertical deviations from it. The design of the foundation was started in the form of a simple rectangle, however, it was concluded that the rectangular form does not fit into the overall concept of the project. For this reason, the base of the villa was designed according to the module, i.e. the area of one room was taken as a unit, which, through various translations and multiplications, contributed to the fact that the base itself can support the idea of the entire project. The interior is designed to contain everything a four-member family needs for vacation and entertainment at a high level, but also to support the structure of the building, which is dominant in itself.
Public space includes access roads and pedestrian roads, commercial content, promenade along the river and public beaches. Next to the promenade, there is a building that houses the intended commercial content. The largest percentage of the object's surface is occupied by the digital museum. This part of Croatia has a rich history and objects from Ancient Rome, which have been preserved. Since the nearest museum content is located in Zadar, a city that is about forty kilometers from the location, I thought it necessary to bring such content closer to Starigrad. The digital museum is designed as an open space, that is, it has free-standing walls on which projections of various objects and events from the history of the surrounding places are displayed. This interactive way of presentation was chosen because it is the only way to ensure that no day of the exhibition is the same as the previous one, i.e. visitors can visit more than once during their stay. Next to the museum, there is a cinema that only shows films from the Yugoslav film scene, as well as the necessary shops, a cafe and a restaurant. The promenade basically follows the appearance of the surrounding buildings and extends along the entire length of the given location. The beaches follow the line of the promenade. Ships have the possibility of anchoring in the marina, so that the public space can be accessed from the water, that is, that space is not exclusively accessible only by land.

Technical information

By observing the virtues and flaws of the given space, its potential was maximally used through this project. A big challenge was the fact that the location itself creates a very pleasant feeling for visitors even though there are not many buildings nearby, that is, it was difficult to design a settlement for tourists that would equalize or improve the overall impression of this place with its appearance and function.

Zones