Winner

The Fantastic Forest Phenomenon

KARLOVAC (HR) — WINNER

AUTHOR(S) — Krešimir Renić (HR), Hana Dašić (HR), Iva Erić (HR), Jana Horvat (HR), Ria Tursan (HR), Architects CONTRIBUTOR(S) — Andrea Majić (HR), Architect CONTACT — kresimir@onda-arhitektura.hr hana.dasic@gmail.com / iva.eric@gmail.com / 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.