Forum Zadar : Museum and Cultural Centre
MArch Graduation Thesis
How to respond to a location whose historical roots are more than 2000 years old, whose immediate surroundings include an ancient Roman Forum, an iconic Romanesque Rotunda, as well as notable modernist architecture from the 1950’s?
The main conceptual premise of the project is the ancient Roman city grid, as it is the most well preserved historical layer. It was a frame that enabled the later city to develop. The new project, with its “canopy” also aims to be a frame that enables the public life that such a location demands. It imposes a strong visual appearance in the surrounding space that connects the complex urban fabric. Its monumental size also serves as a reminder of the urban block that used to exist at this location before World War II.
The form is carefully crafted in order to invoke a classical sense of order and symmetry, but with a slight contemporary twist that appears with the displacement of the vertical columns. The pairing of these columns form focused visual frames of the surrounding urban landscape. The structure is made from white concrete, but it leaves a light impression due to thin structural elements.
The choice of a modern art museum serves as a means to better represent the contemporary local culture, along with enabling a public character for the new building and its open space, which is left relatively undefined in order to maximize flexibility.
