Refinement of Urbanity

architects Zoran Boševski, Boris Fiolić, Mira Tadej-Crnković
project Business and Residental House, Zagreb, Croatia
written by Maroje Mrduljaš

 

The building on Ribnjak by Studio F is a fine example of an exercise in urbanity. What is concerned here is an imprint that has been made into an urban tissue of specific character, one that is demanding, but at the same time convenient and sufficiently pliable to take interpolations. The slightly curving Ribnjak has an asymmetrical transverse section: on the north-eastern side there are buildings at the foot of the slightly wooded hill of Šalata, while a romantic park is located along the opposite side, opening up views of the back of the Cathedral. Such a high quality situation, in which both continuity of urban tissue and openness to the landscape are to be found, is typical of neither the block setting nor the open structure of detached houses.