The Fantastic Forest Phenomenon
KARLOVAC (HR) — WINNER
AUTHOR(S) — Krešimir Renić (HR), Hana Dašić (HR),
CONTACT — kresimir@onda-arhitektura.hr
Iva Erić (HR), Jana Horvat (HR), Ria Tursan (HR), Architects
hana.dasic@gmail.com / iva.eric@gmail.com /
CONTRIBUTOR(S) — Andrea Majić (HR), Architect
jana.dora.horvat@gmail.com / ria.tursan@gmail.com
TEAM POINT OF VIEW — Cities like Karlovac need new narratives,
good stories that have the power to attract everything they are missing: people, money and excitement. Due to a very convenient geological position, Karlovac has the potential to become a leading regional energy centre. The role of Luščić, a new research hub in the city, is to explore this possibility for new productivity, as well as similar ones, in and around the city. New strategies are developed, introducing a network of new flows through the city. The neighbourhood itself is designed to function as an independent ecosystem of a peculiar, forest-like environment, a hybrid urban and natural habitat that serves as an exciting arena for experiment and imagination. JURY POINT OF VIEW — The project seeks to highlight the fact that
the ambience of the former barracks, in the image and perception of Karlovac, is actually an infrastructure-equipped “forest” ideal for recreational use with minimal interventions in terms of reconstruction of existing facilities and future construction that should be of mixed character. The project makes a convincing and fairly detailed case for a renewed role of architecture to propose concrete and grounded screenplay for urban development. It relies on the topics of contemporary architectural discourse as a platform for a new beginning.
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