RESIDENTIAL-COMMERCIAL BUILDING ŠPANSKO, ZAGREB, competition, 2003.
authors Rajka Bunjevac mag.ing.arch., Vlatka Vidović mag.ing.arch., Ivana Kosier Czeisberger mag.ing.arch.

Within the urban subsidized residential community “Špansko – Sjever”, three parcels in the south-western section of the construction site were designated for smaller residential buildings. A building of a roughly rectangular ground plan was designed to be constructed on the central of those three parcels, with two residential blocks and a central circulation space. The residential blocks have been designed as two clean volumes with longitudinal shed roofs sloped in opposite directions. Interventions have been made in those volumes to create niches – inverted openings, where the external spaces of the apartments are placed (loggias, balconies).
The building being a subsidized residential construction, its design is rational and modest. The designer’s focus was on the quality of residential spaces, optimal execution of details, ease of maintenance and durability. The social context and public funding imposed an obligation to approach the project rationally, bearing in mind the social structure of the prospective users and the intended use of the object. We believe that public funding obligates architects to handle those funds with responsibility and design buildings primarily for their prospective users.