A Sketch for the Portrait of the Kaptol Centre

architects Plan d.d., Zagreb; Architectural office of the Faculty of Architecture of the Zagreb University, Zagreb, Croatia
project Shopping Centre and Offices, Zagreb, Croatia
written by Jasminka & Andrija Rusan

 

Present-day Zagreb developed by connecting two historical urban entities – Grič and Kaptol, naturally divided by the valley along which the Medveščak stream used to run. The area created after the regulation and closing of the Medveščak stream gives today’s Tkalčićeva Street and Medvedgradska Street. It is on this extremely delicate and demanding location, a space stretching from the northern part of Tkalčićeva Street, on its lower end, and the southern part of Nova Ves Street, at its upper end, that a new office and shopping complex – the Kaptol Centre, has been erected. The Kaptol Centre dominates both Tkalčićeva Street and Medvedgradska Street and to Nova Ves Street it offers two radically different spatial experiences. The Kaptol Centre was built in an urban environment of the highest monumental and ambient value and one of the set demands was the preservation of the ambience and the existing buildings and the creation of a link between the historic ambience of Tkalčićeva Street and the industrial architecture of the former shoe factory, the building housing the Gliptoteka and Nova Ves Street. Aside from offering an environment rich in historical significance, the Kaptol Centre is located in an area of early industrial architecture.