"It Can Be Done": Lumenart House of Light


architect Andrija Rusan
project Poslovna građevina "Lumenart", Pula, Hrvatska
written by Petra Čeferin

 

The purpose of my visit to Pula in late summer was to see the recently finished office building of the Lumenart lighting company. The company’s owner, designer Dean Skira, curious to know what I would think of the building, instructed me over the phone how to find it and announced that a surprise was waiting for me. I wasn’t thrilled to hear about the surprise since I rarely find wild designer excesses convincing, while restrained architectural solutions thrill me always and again. I made my way along a narrow, winding road, between multi-storey buildings of pastel colours, with massive white balustrades; clearly showing that the ideas of the pioneers of postmodernism have not been understood correctly in the area. After the last left bend – wow! – I was looking at a really uncommon white building, belonging more to El Croquis or a 2G publication, while certainly not between historicistic villas in the outskirts of Pula. That was a relief – I escaped having to explain from which aspect I found the building especially interesting.