On the 30th anniversary for the liberation of Nikšić, the Municipal Assembly voted to build a memorial to the fallen fighters for freedom and the socialist revolution; Dom revolucije (the Home of Revolution). The project was intended to be an architectural hybrid that would represent the socio-political structure of Nikšić. Marko Mušič, a Slovenian architect, was chosen to design the project. Construction started on the 18th of September, 1978, and after eleven years of construction works were suspended. After sitting 27 years as an uncompleted shell in the middle of the urban fabric of Nikšić, the ‘Competition for the Adaptation and Reconstruction for the Home of Revolution’ is an opportunity for the transformation of the existing building and Nikšić itself.
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It was decided that the main intervention should be one that would serve the city and its residents, a social activator that would represent today’s changing conditions. Through analysis and local consultation it was determined that trying to complete the existing megastructure would not work as such a project would be suited to a city more than ten times Nikšić’s size. Therefore a strategy was developed which could take the existing built structure as a starting point, and with minimal interventions and insertions a new type of urban space could be developed. With the introduction of a large underground parking, Dom becomes an urban infrastructure making it a gateway into the city. It allows the old city to become pedestrian, and frees the urban surfaces for cafe seating, pedestrian exploration and for children to play. The visitors who arrive by automobile arrive and are free to enter Dom and explore the social spaces to the north, or to exit to the south and explore the city beyond.
By treating the existing structure as an urbanscape rather than a building, SADAR+VUGA and HHF developed a 10/20/70 strategy. The 10% refers to spaces that would be acclimatized and have year-round defined functions. This manifested in the form of three plugins which could be inserted inside the existing covered urbanscape. These inserted objects contain a cafe, coworking office and gallery spaces, and educational workshops. The language for these plugins is pragmatic and their volumetrics respond to the adjacent architectural forms. The 20% refers to the promenade which transects the building north to south and east to west. The promenades connect the exterior landscape (Dom Park), the interior plugins, and the access to the underground parking infrastructure. The adjacent spaces along the promenade would be renovated and safe, but the functions are left undefined and flexible, changing to the seasons and the users’ themselves. The 70% are those spaces which are safe and secured, but not renovated. These spaces would not be used on a daily basis, but could be made available for use on special occasions.
The advantage of this approach is that it is flexible, affordable, and sustainable. This strategy has the ability to address the current socio-political environment of Nikšić, without discrediting the existing architecture and without being ignorant to its past. The new strategy is one that embraces the qualities of the existing architecture where it is pragmatic, covers it where it is dangerous, and intervenes where it is needed. It is an architecture of reuseism.
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Adaptation and Reconstruction of Dom Revolucije (Home of Revolution)
Nikšić, Montenegro 2016
Source: international competition, 1st prize
Address/Site: Nikšić, Montenegro
architects:
SADAR+VUGA (Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Kenneth Woods)
HHF (Tilo Herlach, Simon Hartmann, Simon Frommenwiler, Mariana Santana, Matija Vukovic, Marta Malinverni)
Cultural Heritage Expert: Luise Rellensmann
Local Consultant: Arhicon (Vladimir Popović)
