The story of further search is being continued. The play of volumes under
the sun in the Dinko Šimunović street is becoming more emphasized. The
plastic rhythm of balcony cubes, slightly differentiated also in tone,
in the play of sunshine and shadow, points to the places of contact between
the houses and their environment. Another plastic play is also appearing:
on side elevation a series of little cubes with niches enabling the birds
to share their living spae with people. In the huge sructure of the residential
building birds-houses also gain their right to exist. Philosophy of life
flows is again intermingled with the notion of architecture, taking it
out of the formalistic shape forming parameters into verification if its
existence. The concept trying to catch the essence and the richness of
life, and the plasticity that the beauty of architectural shapes is introducing
into the men's and birds space.
In the big agglomeration of Mertojak that original clarity of the architectonics
seems to begin to disintegrate. The aspiration after the unit differentiation
followed by revitalization of elementary demands requests, for example,
that a mother has a permanent visual contact with her child's kindergarten
resulting in an agglomeration whose vertical growth does not achieve the
clarity of former examples. The clusters of volumes and shapes are growing,
overlapping, cut by slits, hovering and infinitely reaching out to heights,
in shape, more similar to an overgrown grape than to architectural order.
We would not like to enter here into critical observations on Split town
planning schemes. We do not want to mention what is happening when the
Slovenian town planning concept is being applied in climatic conditions
where the grass is only growing when watered permanently. What are the
areas "behind", inevitably appearing in the case of "street"
rows, and what is happening with the views in the repetition of building
masses, of the so called "cruisers" etc. Here we are talking
about a creative effort of Dinko Kovačić to turn some of the premises
of the then actual town planning aspirations into the Split ownness. It
is about an attempt for the plasticity of architecture to find its words
in the Mediterranean play of the sun, emerging out from the rocks of autochthonous
stone as in his realization of the shopping center "Dinko Šimunović".
Philosophy of seeking after primeval stone will go on (the term "primeval
stone" is the author s expression not one from Dinko Kovačić). In
the times when contemporary architects were traying to find themselves
somewhere between th foreign models and their own possibilities, Kovačić
was always starting from the personal origin of the moving force. The
thought will be searching for itself in the verification of its own "credo",
the path had be born from the soul in order to emerge into the presence
of shapes. The theme has never been an accident, it was always carrying
conscious intention and the power of personal conviction. The one who
loved the pigeons could not betray his relationship towards the existence
becoming the being: neither he could betray the region he belonged to
and which was ordering and enabling, because bougainvilleas are flowering
in Split but not in Senj though also overlooking the sea.
In the eighties I was invited together with the group of architect (with
Dinko Kovačić amongst them) to make a proposal for a new hotel in theme
immediate vicinity of "Zlatni Rat". Analysing the site I took
the firm stand that in the vicinity of "Zlatni Rat" there should
not be any hotel building. In my opinion, "Zlatni Rat" had to
stay as an isolated natural phenomenon and so I reacted quite vehemently
to the contemporary suggestions of the construction of many hotels above
this area. I proposed therefore that the hotel should be pulled back and
completely hidden i.e. incorporated into the near-by wood. Dinko, on the
other hand, had a different opinion.
Philosophy of creation of spaces
that would be pleasant to stay in brought him to the concept where the
story of architecture and that of the primeval stone, of the path and
of original vegetation, of flowers and of permanent moving in the experience
of the "beautiful" are interwoven in a unique agglomeration
of continuing ambiental values. The jury, in which architect Bernardi
played the main role, took completely the side of Kovačić's concept. And
so "Bretanida" was created with its paths and flowers, vegetation
and the romanticism of details, feeding the souls of tourists escaping
the steel and concrete structures of European towns. A white painted tree-trunk
appeared, covered with small birdas. As well as the "Juliet's balcony".
And the copy of the historic bifore from an old Bol palace. And pigeons
found their bird-houses again. A romantic touch of tourist attractivity
has been connected with the philosophy of ambiental values. "Bretanida"
is a hotel working only during summer months and the outer spaces are
the basis of living circulation. In this intermingling the fabric is becoming
partly heterogeneous and so, from some points of view, the white roof
surfaces are dominantly present. Perhaps a question could be asked of
the formal coloring of the balconies. But from a pedestrian standpoint
the story about flower paths, and the gathering spaces, of the pool water
surface and its play with the architectural plasticity near by is becoming
a bearer of the whys and the architectonics of the architecture.
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Boris Magaš: About the origins
