100% DESIGN LONDON - DalCasa

present and we are more focused on our work and our
projects. As far as the architectonic climate in Croatia
itself, I think it’s fairly good and encouraging. There is
a whole new generation of architects on the scene,
and they have been educated by this new digital reality,
despite that not being so evident through the articulation
of architecture itself. However, they are the
children of this digital era we live in. They were also
fortunate that society has opened up to them, which
enabled them to reach work contracts relatively early.
We really had to work hard for it in extremely stiff competition
of older and more respected colleagues. It’s
all very open for young architects today and they can
achieve their projects, if they’re talented and work
hard enough, practically at the beginning of their career.
Croatian architecture has zeal and freshness. The
situation in the profession is much better today; there
is the chamber we fought for back in the nineties, so
we can also take a little credit for that. And finally, the
situation on the market is much more opportune for architects.
Money-shelling investors are starting to realize
that quality brings them certain prestige and financial
benefit, and they view architecture as a brand. They
want to present themselves in public through architecture.
I think that’s the most important aspect that’s really
useful to quality architecture. That doesn’t mean
that a large percentage of what is built isn’t below
any standard and licenses for most of that shouldn’t
even be issued.
Interview
Stambena zgrada u Novoj Gradiški / A residential
building in Nova Gradiška
What should a city of the 21st century look like
Rogina: It should definitely be chaotic. Today’s categories
aren’t classic mechanical categories that set
up linearity and order, but they’re rather categories
that have been replaced by post-modernistic digital
chaos. The city of the 21st century should be confusing.
It defines itself through transformations, changes,
hybridisation and distortion.
What are your plans for the future
Rogina: We will still be at the crest of Croatian architecture.
We are architects of general practice. Just
like all creative bureaus of this type in the world, we
deal with a wide range of architectonic typologies,
which range from reconstructing a single apartment
to enormous urban studies, through all kinds of objects
– sacral, sport, residential, family houses etc. That’s
what we will keep doing and do so in a manner that
implies our office as something that provides extra-value.
It’s never about “ready-made” production, but it’s
always architecture with a signature, and architecture
that carries a brand.
Penezić: It’s hard to make any plans because today’s
world is very unstable. There are no more ideologies.
We live in a post-urban, post-historical era where all options
are open and the only constant thing is change
itself. Therefore, planning things is impossible. We have
always primarily referred to life in our works, and not to
other architectonic role models or recent accomplishments.
That’s how we’ll keep functioning because life
is variable and is a category that is impossible to predict.
We have always tried to interpret the time we live
in and I hope that we’ll keep doing that.
Olymptours interijer / Olymptours interior
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