MUZIL
A sports hall located in an ex austro hungarian military base - MUZIL, on the peninsula in front of Pula, Croatia.
The challange was to contextualize the site (barren landscape, still held by croatian military) and give the hall a second use. After studying the location, the project was worked out which would integrate itself with the nature as much as possible. The austro hungarian fortifications still preserved on the peninsula but concealed by nature provided the starting point.
The architecture of Bogdan Bogdanovic, especially his monuments served as a guide in what seemed architecture might feel like in this kind of coarse environment. in creating a 'long term' architecture by building in re enforced concrete with only a glass surface ameba where needed to create round the year conditions, a space was created featuring two types of structures sheltering two indoor sport halls. The space where they overlap becomes a small gym, a bar and an office space.? ?The justification of the second use was thought of through the idea of passing time, a dystopia of time as portrayed in the last scene of The Planet of the Apes, perhaps, and the idea of architecture aging (the Tschumi like programming seemed much too urban). This is what we see when we look at the 19th century fortifications, the idea of architectural artifact still easily inhabitable. A kind of Buzzati's fortress in the Tartar Steppe. The idea architecture will intertwine with the environment and become just a shelter in the landscape, a sort of hikers artifact.
