Attributing and Defining an Unbuilt 1859 Architectural Plan for the Site of Trogir’s Medieval Walls

This paper discusses the attribution of an anonymous and unbuilt 1859 plan for a four-storey apartment building with commercial spaces on the ground floor, located on the site of the old town walls in Trogir. It proposes Josip Slade as the architect of the plan, interpreting Slade’s architectural language and the development of his approach to architectural heritage. An analysis of the project in a historical socio-political and spatial context, moreover, supports the conclusion that this was intended as rental property, and this paper therefore offers insights into the first known example of the tenement housing building typology in the nineteenth-century Trogir

Projects for Ferme Ornée on the Island of Lokrum by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Habsburg

This research deals with projects for a residence on the island of Lokrum by Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg (1832-1867). In the short period of owning the island (1859-1867), Maximilian ordered three different designs for Lokrum. The subject of research in this paper is the first phase of the project, dating from 1860 to 1866, when the general plan of the island, Maximilian’s residence, farm building and court chapel were designed. The research is based on an analysis of primary archival sources while the contemporary models for the project have been found through literature review. Twenty archival drafts have been described textually and graphically published. Maximilian actively participated in the planning and design process, but the author of the projects was Thomas Friedrich. After the general plan of the island from 1860 came sixteen preserved plans of Maximilian’s residence, which are with this research dated to the period from 1862 to 1864. The drafts for the farm building, court chapel and altar date back to the period from 1864 to 1866. Although in terms of architecture it was only partially built (only the landscape part of the project was executed), the Lokrum project from 1860 to 1866 shows Maximilian’s original idea of the island before the later grandiose plans of transformation into an imperial residence.

Gardens of Vranyczany’s Manor Houses in Hrvatsko Zagorje in the Age of Historicism

The Vranyczany-Dobrinović family (short: Vranyczany) is an aristocratic family that rose to power in Croatia in the second half of the 19th century. Members of the family possessed five manor houses surrounded by gardens with historicist features from the late 19th and early 20th century. All five are located in the hilly region of Hrvatsko Zagorje, which boasts the highest density of castles and manor houses in Croatia, built in continuity from the 17th until the beginning of the 20th century. The aim is to determine the features of the gardens of the explored castles, on the basis of photographs from the beginning of the 20th century as well as cartographic sources. A wealth of photographic documents from the beginning of the 20th century shows carefully landscaped and kept gardens and parks, with a full life flourishing in them. Vranyczany’s manor houses’ gardens are based on the Biedermeier and romantic tradition of garden culture. Towards the end of the 19th century, many gardeners trained in Vienna, Prague and other Central European cities, lived in Zagreb and the surrounding area. They passed down ideas related to the historicist garden culture and competed in artistic and horticultural gardening.

Resort Architecture in Regional Perceptions

The regional aspirations of resort architecture give specific perspectives on the history of regionalism. The development of the shores of Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe, was determined by this particular regional aspiration. Iván Kotsis was a defining figure of Hungarian architecture between the world wars, and had a significant impact on the period - not only with his work as an architect, but also as a university professor and a public activist. This paper examines his activity around Lake Balaton on different scales, since it represented a peculiar perspective within the history of regional ideas. The research concludes that Kotsis’ regional perspective focused on resort architecture was an independent conception separated from both modern and local interpretations. Based on his university work and the knowledge transfer resulting from his international relations, he developed an integrated perspective on the region from an academic position. Reflecting on the problems of holiday resorts, he formed an autonomous method with which he experimented, to mediate between the universal modern approach and the local features of the landscape.

Decoding the Spatial Configuration of the Ottoman Palace “Khdewedj El Amia” in Algiers (Algeria) through Space Syntax

Palaces of the Ottoman era, the Golden age of Islamic civilization, bear witness to a prestigious know-how, drawing its rules from a way of life governed by the Islamic Sharia, the socio-cultural context of the Berber-Arab population and the climate-physical environment. The palace of Khdewedj El Amia is one of the majestic palaces located at the Casbah of Algiers and constitutes the subject of this article whose objective is to decode its genome in order to understand the social logic of a space inhabited and designed by a princess who lost her sight. Hence the name El Amia, which means blind in Arabic. The decoding of this building used the space syntax approach via a visibility graph analysis (VGA) performed by the Depthmap tool and a quantitative analysis of the graph justified by the Agraph tool. It is about taking into account the way in which vernacular architecture can stimulate the direct perception of space and participate in the construction of the user’s path. It was found that the palace is made up of two entities; one is of public order highlighting the resident/alien interface, and another intended for the private apartments, the harem of the princess, isolated from the outside world.

An Alternative Approach to Geometric Harmonization of the Great Mosque in Córdoba

This research constitutes an alternative to proportional composition studies of the original Great Mosque and its four extensions in Córdoba, based on diagonals of a square and rectangles in ratio 1:√2 and 1:√3 (Fernández-Puertas, 2000, 2008). The method for this alternative research consists of graphic analyses by iteration of hypothetical products of the golden section in AutoCAD 2D software conducted on architectural drawings of the original Great Mosque and its four extensions, in reconstruction, according to measurements from the relevant literature. The alternative method insists on geometric harmonization derived from only one starting length in all drawings of same scale. It resulted in the production of a single harmonization pattern based on the golden section, with an additional sequence of a√2/Φn, successively developed for the original monument and its four extensions. It also includes otherwise excluded basic composition elements (minarets) and reveals otherwise hidden proportional qualities. The alternative approach enabled a deduction of algebraic expressions having only one variable for all drawings of the same scale. Their arithmetic values and deviations from real dimensions are calculated. Geometric harmonization by golden section with another starting length is applied to the drawing of the elevation at a different scale.

Anthropogenic Elements of the Cultural Landscape of the Island Goli Otok in Croatia

The island Goli otok (north Adriatic, Croatia) cultural landscape is a complex system of interactions between people and nature, which has arisen through the anthropogenic use of this unique natural space with the aim of implementing ideas of the ideological re-education of political prisoners between 1949 and 1956, and the punishment of criminals and some political prisoners between 1956 and 1988. The most significant elements of the cultural landscape of the island are comprised of the anthropogenic structures of the political prison camp which deliberately used the natural features of the landscape in such a way as to enable methods of coercion of prisoners, which finally resulted in the unique identity of the space as a unit.

Influence of Technology on Socio-spatial City Development

This paper is studying influence of new technologies on city development with accent on socio-spatial dimension. The primary goal of the paper is to point out the reflections of earlier ideas in the context of modern technological processes in cities. All social, technical and technological components of a community, and finally civilization, are reflected within space of the city. Although having remained the greatest consumer of many material goods, city has also become a ‘’producer’’ of many technical-technological and spiritual values of civilization. Taking into account acceleration of phenomena in the world of technology and technology featuring modernity, it reasonably brings a question on realistic chance for prediction of their further course and related social changes that are about to cause it. In many scenarios of urban future, one can sense the idea of a city as a result of high technological achievements of civilization. Special attention is paid on informational city which, connecting a lot of people into systems of interactive information technology change the way of their mutual communication, as well as their social life and culture of behaviour. Measure of organization and function of city is set by telecommunication technologies, information, and computers. If city is a ‘’print of a society in space’’, then a contemporary moment refers to ‘’digitalization’’ of human beings, digitalization of their interactions, new aesthetics, value and other criteria. The tendency of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of new technologies on 21st century cities interpreted primarily through the prism of certain theoretical and experimental ideas and concepts of the 20th century.

Split 2 Housing Developments Planned from 1957 to 1968

Split 2 is a significant part of urban and architectural heritage in Split and Croatia. This arises from the scope and reach of the rational urban planning and use of space, inventive architectural design focused on construction technologies, operations and materials which were mainly organized in concentric construction sites of housing developments and areas which predominantly featured standardized residential buildings and residential high-rises in the period from 1957 to 1968.

Reconciling Architectural Design with Seismic Codes

Seismic codes include strict requirements for the design and construction of mid-rise reinforced concrete residential buildings. These requirements call for the symmetric and regular arrangement of the structural system, increased cross-sections for columns, and the introduction of shear walls to counteract the effects of lateral seismic loads. It is challenging for architects to reconcile the demands of these codes with the spatial arrangement and commercial appeal of their designs. This study argues that such reconciliation is possible through an architectural analysis. First, the effectiveness of applying the seismic design principles required by the codes is demonstrated with the comparative analysis of two finite element models. Then three pairs of architectural models, representing the most common floor plan arrangements for such buildings in Turkey, are architecturally analyzed before and after the application of seismic design principles in terms of floor area and access to view. The results demonstrate that within the context defined by the methodology of this study, considerable seismic achievement can be achieved in mid-rise reinforced concrete residential buildings by the application of relatively few, basic design features by the architects.