The exhibition Spaces of co-operation is based on the work of the Institute for Spatial Planning of Zadar County which over the past twenty years has affirmed interdisciplinary collaboration and applied it to the elaboration of planning documents. Systematic ordering of research and experimental studies and practice in Croatia is not common, so the Institute has become one of the centers of linking contemporary theory and institutional practice in an effort to respond and act in accordance with the current transformation of the built environment.

Due to their cultural, economic and natural heterogeneity and long urban tradition Zadar County and the City of Zadar were grateful area for research. The exhibition is therefore based on two overlapping content layers: the first gathers research results and methods of their implementation into plans, while the second outlines the urban features of County and the City, relying on the analytical parts of the plan but also on the observations of the authors of the exhibition.

The organization of the exhibition is inseparable from its content. The physical structure of the County is reconstructed through longitudinal sections of recognizable relief in a series of islands, through coastal area, Ravni kotari and Bukovica, therefore the exhibition is experienced as an entering into topography. In it the network of toponyms is set together with corresponding results of research studies and thus the knowledge created through the work of the Institute and collaborators is territorialized. In the topography a glossary is also added that provides quick and readable insight into the key concepts of urban planning discourse. A similar procedure was carried out also with the City of Zadar, whose map is segmented into most important territorial segments, and in these the existing and future interventions are delineated. These “meaningful topographies” are the centre of the exhibition, while the studies as separate entities are shown as separate entities.

The emphasis of the exhibition is placed on the leading developmental processes in the City and County. At the level of the City this is the demilitarization of large zones in the city centre which after 1991 lost its function. The industry was also transferred outside the immediate city area which relieved large spatial resources, and Zadar itself became a case study for the transformation into postindustrial and postmilitary city. These spaces are allocated for public contents, among which the University in its intensive expansion is especially important, but also the construction of public buildings, such as the new “Sport Forum” and the articulation of public spaces such as the internationally well-known Sea Organ designed by the architect Nikola Basic. In a broader context, the structure of the city is changed according to the establishment of new developmental directions and new areas of centrality that will induce relocation of the ferry port from Zadar peninsula to new integrated transport terminal in the bay Gaženica.

A the level of the County we follow the concept of planning that is based on the already initiated processes and resources such as the formation of program hybrid clusters based around different primary activities: from agriculture and industry to archaeological sites and tourism. These clusters are linked into integrated networks, therefore in the planning strategies the whole territory is perceived as “urbanized”. Although the official plans deal with “surfaces” and zones, the plans and research studies affirm the approach in which the primary quality are activities and their interactions rather than physical structures. Environmental protection is incorporated into all planning ideas.

The majority of planning initiatives was created through the process of co-operation, active dialogue between different disciplines, implemented through a variety of formats: studies, seminars, workshops, symposia… Hardly visible layer of negotiations with the political and economic actors was particularly important. In circumstances where we find many conflicting interests, but the instruments of regulation are limited, the research studies and continuous public work of the Institute served as an important argument in advocating the public interest.

Authors: Maroje Mrduljaš, Antun Sevšek, Damir Gamulin Gamba
Consultants: Nives Kozulić, Vladimir Mattioni
Authorial collaboration: Petar Kozina
Collaborators: Eljuga Žižić (graphic design), Melita Čavlović (Research and Architecture)

Opening

Thursday, 9. 1. 2014, 7 pm

Info

Museum of Architecture and Design
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