zoka zola architecture + urban design   1737 west ohio street   chicago IL 60622    t 312 491 9431    f 312 491 9432    info@zokazola.com

4 residential buildings with 80 condominiums retail spaces + 4 garages Rijeka, Croatia 1st prize winner of architectural and urban competition

Currently under construction, scheduled 2014

Images for skin revised for construction documents

view from south showing 3 out of 4 buildings

1 st prize social housing competition 2008

view of site showing 4 new buildings

diagrams showing mathematical interpolation of contour lines into building shapes

The competition We won this invited and open competition for affordable housing in Croatia in August 2008. Construction is started in September 2013. Jury comments: “This project is important to architecture for its discussion about the edge of the city. It will set new standards for architectural quality for the national affordable housing program.” The requirements The requirements of this competition were to design 80 condominiums in 3 - 5 buildings each on its own newly formed lot. In addition we were to provide 120 parking spaces, some commercial spaces, a children’s playground, park areas and fire lanes to reach each condominium. The condominium sizes and each room areas were specified. City zoning and building codes were to be applied. The Site The topography of the site is like scrambled papers; 15’ over 15’ of dip in one direction, than 10’ over 20’ rise in another direction and so on. On the highest elevation there is a small circular wetland. The entire site is a habitat for a dense forest with wild and varied in species. Is this piece of land appropriate for building such a dense development? If this pice of land is to be used for the requireddensity development, the topography and forest have to remain a key element of the development.

open ground floor stairwell view from north view showing transparency of the building view from southeast

garage plans for each building + ground floor of the site (including wetland and fire lanes)

close-up view showing buildings aliignment with site contours

typical floors 2-5

The Concept We call the project “INTERPOLATION” which in architectural vocabulary usually means insertion of a building in a tight and mature city fabric, but this time we mean Interpolation of a building INTO THE NATURE . Our strategy was to find locations on the site where land is at the same elevation as the two surrounding streets and from there to follow the topographical contours with the building. This strategy was the only way to ensure minimum disturbance of the topography, which in this case means the minimum disturbance of the soil and consequently of the forest. But since the topography of the site was so extreme, we had to mathematically “interpolate” the topographic curves that we had chosen to reduce them to four point polylines that formed a building shape with two “bends” and three variable lengths between the polyline points. The buildings are lifted off the ground with empty ground levels from which the entire site and its surrounding, which is the edge of the city, is perceivable to every inhabitant. In the same time subterranean condominiums are avoided. By choosing to place the buildings perpendiular to the edge of the city every condominium gets a view of the city and the forest. An additional objective was to give all condominiums a view of the Adriatic Sea. Our building typology of double sided units and lifiting the buildings off the ground allows a view of Adriatic sea from every condominium. For people of costal cities in Croatia, the view of the sea is the most prized non material element of their dwelling.

view of the apartment with the afternoon light

diagram showing views to the mountains and the sea

cross ventilation of apartments

view of the apartment with the morning light

panoramic view of site showing how the buildings interpolate into nature

west-east section through the site showing very irregular topography

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©Zoka Zola 2007
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Credits: Client: City of Rijeka Design: Zoka Zola Dorothea Schulz, Vuki Backonja, Kate Casey, Fred Grier, Adi Kohn, Blake Smith	back to top