Dubrovčan Production and Office Building

The commission was for a client with whom we have collaborated previously on two housing projects, one in Zabok and other in Zagreb, Croatia. The client is a construction and development company and, as opposed to previous two projects with apartments for sale, they built this project as their own building with offices and production spaces.

The building in Dubrovčan is based on a simple yet powerful concept: a single-story office structure with a square floor plan and a circular atrium, set on three landscaped mounds. As a response to the rapid changes in its immediate surroundings, the building establishes its own context by drawing the natural environment into its interior and inviting gradual spatial discovery.

The horizontal organization of workspaces around the central atrium is non-hierarchical, offering different types of work environments—from individual offices and meeting rooms, to niches for teamwork and open hot-desk areas. This inner working landscape is complemented by a small circular hall, an auditorium, a canteen, and a rooftop pavilion with a terrace and running track.

We wanted to design the building that can withstand the changes in its immediate surroundings. A building that relates to the natural surroundings on one side, but also to the rapidly growing industrial surroundings on the other side.

The site was a crucial impact for the concept. It was a former construction material depot, containing piles of excavated soil and waste from other construction sites. Along with a mild natural slope, the site topography was constantly changing. And these constant changes encouraged us to establish a new topography with three inhabited mounds ‘carrying’ the one-story building.

The client/owner wanted the building to reflect their ambitions and skills as a construction company. But, instead of ‘representation’ in a traditional sense, we aimed for a spatial and architectural qualities and high level of execution and detailing. 

With every project, we begin by asking ourselves fundamental questions: what we are doing, why we are doing it, what we have found on site, and what kind of relationship we are establishing with the existing environment.

If the questions are well formulated, the response to all circumstances—both visible and invisible—becomes logical, and functionality as well as sustainability naturally follow.

Email interview conducted by John Hill.