Golf Park Dubrovnik - DalCasa

30r a z g o v o ri n t e r v i e wtable institution as Oris, the magazine for architectureand culture, which in the past 15 years has introducedto Croatia many famous names in the world of architectureand design, and hosted many lectures, exhibitionsand events, among which the most exposedwere exactly the Days of Oris, the annual two-daysymposium with lectures by prominent internationaland local architects.Connoisseurs of the local architectural scene arewell aware that the guiding force of all Oris’s activitiesis the agile Andrija Rusan, independent architect, headof his own studio “Rusan architecture” and the publisherand editor in chief of Oris magazine. Besides workingon projects and numerous interior designs, houses andvillas and commercial buildings and public facilities,as well as the rich publishing activity, Rusan is also theauthor of many exhibitions and winner of valuableawards (the “Drago Galic award” by the Croatian Architects’Association for the best residential architecturein 1997, the,”Dedalo Minosse award” for the Lumenarthouse in Pula, 2007). In addition, his Oris magazinereceived twice for scientific -research, journalistic, criticaland theoretical work in the field of architecture, the“Neven award” by the Croatian Architects’ Association.Because of all of the above mentioned, as well as ofthe announcement of attractive contents, the Oris’sHouse of architecture, that should open its door in themiddle of this year in the street of Kralja Drzislava no.3, undoubtedly has the potential to rapidly becomeone of Zagreb’s most interesting social areas, both forprofessionals and lovers of architecture and the generalpublic. In fact, the announced 40-odd diverse eventsper year suggest that it will be a very lively place forformal and informal meetings.We spoke with Andrija Rusan about the idea, contentand implementation of this interesting project,but also about the trends in world architecture and thestate of the local scene, in whose context the House ofarchitecture appears.What was your main idea in designing the project ofOris’s House of architecture?Oris magazine is in its fifteenth year of operation, andwe have already been organizing a congress the Daysof Oris for 12 years; therefore the idea about having ourown space for exhibiting and promoting what we do –the architecture, design,… but also cultural-artistic orfor life important values, came to us a long time ago.It is obvious that the idea is now ripe. Why is it happeningright now? Because the market position of theprinted media has changed, and a crisis appeared thathas shown the necessity of finding new ways of working.Furthermore, the reason is also that we want to befresher and more interesting to our existing but also toattract a new audience. Because of all this, it is time totake action, in order to prevent all of this from remainingonly a sweet dream.Luckily the opportunity of reaching a suitablespace presented itself and there we created a program,quite complete in our opinion, which will representa pretty big step forward compared to what wehad done before...When are you expected to open, and which eventsare planned for this event?The opening take place this fall, on September 21 st .Otherwise, the concept of the House of architectureprovides a multi-purpose area, where exhibitions,lectures, presentations, promotions, film screenings,meetings, concerts will be held ... We will have a readingroom, and the basement will house the club’s restaurantwith superb Voncimer (old Zagreb slang fromthe German word Wohnzimmer – living room) cuisine,whose name indicates that we want everyone to feelat home in the House of architecture, like they are intheir own living room. And the chef is already wellknown,and therefore the top quality of the restaurantis guaranteed. The restaurant will also help the Houseof architecture become a place where people will notonly come for the openings of exhibitions or lectures,but also every day.Already at this moment, thanks to our experienceand references that we have gained through manyyears of work, we know the program for many monthsin advance. The opening of the House of architectureshould be accompanied by an exhibition, and I amsaying this for the first time to the media, to which wehave invited 50-odd architects from all over the worldand Croatia, who will participate with some of theirworks, in the form of sketches, models ... It is interestingthat now with some of the architects it has turnedinto very, very ambitious proposals. Some of the bigworld famous names will appear here, such as RafaelMoneo, Álvaro Siza, Kazuyo Sejima, Tadao Ando ... andfrom domestic ones Hrvoje Njiric, Idis Turato...So, an exhibition which should show that Oris hasso far built up a large network of friendship, trust andrespect, i.e., provided a path down which the events inthe House of architecture should go.What will the interior design look like?The interior design should be functional, simple, and itshould in no way be luxurious. It should be, if I may sayso, be luxurious by the fact that with simple elementsyou can create very usable space.For which type of audience will the House of architecturebe designed?It will be designed for architects, designers, artistsof various types, people who are close to culture andart, who in terms of their professional occupation donot come from that world ... I say this with certaintybecause last autumn, when we publicly expressed ouridea, a couple of friends and acquaintances called meto tell me how many of them would be glad that Zagrebwill finally has a place where you can visit an interestingexhibition or lecture, and afterwards have a nicesnack and socialize.Is the idea designed also according to a specific,example from abroad?It would be pretentious to say that there is no specificinspiration. In the world there are similar institutions