Assignment

With the task of rethinking tourism in the Mediterranean region, the project started in the spring semester of 2019 at Studio Tom Emerson. In groups of two, we were assigned a building that was then to be altered in order to fulfill a task relevant to tourism and the city of Pula. In order to understand the possibilities and implications of a certain approach, we could and should refer to the previously developed Atlas of Altering Architecture to find our own method of dealing with the existing building.

Concept

The building assigned to us was an Austrian fortress from the 19th century. It is located at the westernmost point of the city on a peninsula and thus flanks the entrance to the bay of Pula. The building is located on a military site which is still inaccessible to this day.

The first step was to cut the fortress in half using axes, thereby opening it up to the outside. In a second step, the buried rooms were freed from the earth and inner courtyards - as a kind of light well - were excavated to ensure that each room was properly illuminated and ventilated. Finally, the remaining free space in the fortress was filled with a cell-like structure similar to that already existing structure within the old walls.

The intention was for the complex to serve as a working and residential area where companies and start-ups from all over the world could rent space, turning the building into a lively place to live and work. While there are offices in the outer ring, the inner part contains small apartments that have been reduced to the bare essentials and are accessed via winding paths. The individually designed courtyards are intended to become the living rooms of the residential area. All public facilities, such as stores, restaurants, cafés etc., are located along the wide axes, which serve as both the main access route and for all infrastructural facilities.

The axes can be extended from the fortress further into the surrounding area, allowing the building to serve as an incubator for other similar developments in the surrounding area. The new settlement fits into an existing system of roads and paths and becomes an extension of the city.