The Transparent and Opaque

architects Vesna Mikić
project The BBK Hairdresser's, Zagreb, Croatia
written by Sanja Filep

 

The exterior and the interior are always defined by their correlation. One entails the other. The two create the dialectic of parallel systems. The degree of (in)distinction of the boundary between them defines how they affect each other.

 

The BBK space designed by Vesna Mikić activates this motif of blurred boundaries, but through several layers. The glass screen stretched over the entire front makes a physical barrier between the interior activities and the pulsating street, Vlaška. The screen transparency supports parallel activities within and outside, and questions the exact notion of the exterior and interior. The urban space is deliberately introduced into the interior as the living space. In return, the interior reflects the exterior and builds on it.