Badel Block Complex

badel block Badel Block Competition Urban Design Shopping Centre hotel Office Retail

THE BADEL SITE URBAN-ARCHITECTURAL IDEAS COMPETITION

Team: dr inż. arch. Dominika Pazder, dr inż. arch. Bartosz Kaźmierczak, Judyta Szamałek, Jakub Chrzanowski, Łukasz Ekwiński

Description and explanation of the overall concept

The main idea of the project is to introduce a new quality to existing urban situation and highlight its historical value and spatial potential. The aim of the project is to give a Badel block the right significance by defining its borders. We enclose a space to organize it properly and give it new meaning.Our inspiration are the works of Yoshinobu Ashihara who claims that an urban interior should be created in accordance with the same rules as anarchitectural one the most important is to give a space borders to identify it and open in a social meaning. In the very first steps of a conceptual work, we werethinking about an existing potential of a Badel block. An Arco Liquer and Vinegar Factory gave us an inspiration. We thought about liquers and wines poured into alimited space of a glass beauty enclosed in a shape and colour. We decided to pour some vinegar-enthusiasm into this degradad area and make it more livableand attractive for people. A project of a Badel block bases on an assumption that new buildings are to draw attention to historical values hidden in a so farspatially non-defined area. We give a new quality in a shape of modern architecture in order to bring a new life to old values and make Badel socially attractive. Inour conception all valuable old pieces of architecture are spatially underlined and play significant role in urban composition. These are elements of visual andaesthetic importance as they have a great impact on a spatial and social identity and uniqueness of a Badel site.

Space allocation, functional and spatial relationships within the defined competition zone, valuation and use of protected buildings

The idea of a Badel block spatial revival is based on a homogenious co-existance of old values and new architectural solutions. Existing historical pieces ofarchitecture within a given site are used as landmarks of a past combined with modern architectural elements. In a project a new compositional dominant islocated in a middle of Badel block's urban wall of Subiceva street. This residential and hotel tower is sixteen storeys high so as to landmark a Badel site from adistant perspective and give it a new meaning of cultural, commercial and business centre within a city. The tower is not quite vertical, it is a little tilted intheWest-South direction. This is an intended operation aiming at a creation of an urban wall along Subiceva street. This built infilling of an urban structure isperceived from a long distance from East-South direction. The volume of new buildings is adjusted to a scale of existing urban surrounding so as to underline theimportance of a spatial context.All existing spatial and functional connections are taken into consideration and the lokkcation of new architectural elements is based on these relations. An urbaninterior within a new Badel block offers two main public spaces accessible from Subiceva street as well as three spatially important entrances leading to aninner space of a block (one from Subiceva street and one from Marticeva and Derencinova corner). The entrances are connected compositionally with main urbanaxes within an examined part of Zagreb, especially along Subiceva street. The public spaces created in form of squares with greenery are important in terms of asocial attractiveness of Badel. This inner space is enclosed in order to provide proper conditions to develop social interactions and contacts. Our aim is to give aright atmosphere to the site and make people stop for a while and spend some time in a nice urban space.A new quality of a Badel block is the outcome of a proper functional and spatial zoning. New architectural and urban solutions provide a harmonious relationshipbetween existing functions and new ones within the examined area. There are enclosed zones of residential blocks to provide a semi-public inner space as wellas to divide office and service from culture and leisure space. Public spaces open for all city users are accentuated in an urban composition and visible from mainaxes so as to direct pedestrian traffic straight to the aim a new hub of the Zagreb central district.