Under the Mountain

architects BÜRO4 - Wagner+Partner Architekten+Stadtplaner
project Holiday House, Podgora, Croatia
Written by Ante Nikša Bilić

 

 

In the domain of residential architecture, holiday homes are ambiguous buildings – somewhat unreal, deprived of strict utilitarianism, and subject to re-examination and exploration of form. This ambiguity stems from the fact that these buildings are used either on weekends or for a few weeks during the summer. During the rest of the year they are empty, void of their function; thus deserted and hugged by the wind, without their users, they are often called sculptures in space.

Podgora, as its name suggests, is situated at the foot of the mountain Biokovo. As the poet Petar Gudelj wrote, “Biokovo, a head higher than all the Adriatic mountains.” Podgora is today divided into the old one—under Biokovo, deserted, grouped along petrified hamlets, with a church, belfry, cemetery, cypresses, olive groves, chapels, the bora and the view of the sky, the sea and the islands—and the new Podgora – rebuilt, located between the coast and the Adriatic Highway.