AD Interviews: 3LHD
My first encounter with the new breed of Croatian architects was with 3LHD, a young firm ran by Sasa Begovic, Marko Dabrovic, Tanja Grozdanic and Silvije Novak. The partners got together while still students at the Zagreb Architecture School in 1994, and thanks to the croatian competition system they were able to do their first public works, starting with the Memorial Bridge in Rijeka (1997). After that, the firm has been involved in several public works such as a stone Sports Hall in Bale, the Spaladium Center in Lora, and their latest realizations: Zamet Center in Rijeka and the Dance Center in Zagreb. In these projects, 3LHD has been able to develop new shapes that relate to a young nation.
But thanks to their awarded public buildings, the firm has also received commissions for office developments, hotels, and private houses: House K, House N and House V.
I really enjoyed my visit to this practice, and was very glad to see how a young practice (partners born between 1969-1971) can establish a collaborative working environment with a clear organization, that allows them to effectively manage a large team to work in different scales.
Croatia: CIP Talks and new architecture
During these days I´m in Zagreb, Croatia, participating at CIP Talks 2009, an architecture conference organized by CIP Magazine. The list of lecturers at the conference include renowned architects, such as Mauricio Pezo & Sofía von Ellrichshausen (PvE), Jan Neutelings (Neutelings & Riedjik), Mark Lee (Johnston & MarkLee, interview here), Shohei Shigematsu (OMA, interview here), Carme Pinós, Arnaud Billard (Transsolar), Mikkel Frost (CEBRA), STUDIO UP (winners of the Emerging Architect MvE Award with their Gymnasium), Joseph Grima (Director of the Storefront Gallery, interview here), among other european and US architects.
Also, during these days we find the Croatian Architectural Triennale, the launch of Pogledaj.to a new local website for architecture, a new book on Croatian architecture, the opening of a new pavilion on the center of the city… an intense dose of architecture that we will be reporting during the following days.
I will be visiting and interviewing local practices such as 3LHD, Randic Turato, Studio UP, Njiric + Njiric, and more, to bring you more and more projects.
Yesterday I went to the coastal city of Rijeka, and visited three interesting projects by 3LHD and Randic Turato. See the photographs after the break, and expect the usual complete posting with all the info on these projects sometime during this week.
CIP Talks 2009
CIP Talks 2009 continues the success of its first edition last year, with a series of talks and round tables with prominent architects from around the world, taking place in Zagreb, the heart of Croatia.
The success of last years edition was to the level of the invited speakers: Joshua Prince-Ramus from REX, the brain behind the epic Museum Plaza, and part of the team of the Seattle Library (watch our interview with him here, previously featured projects here), Luke Pearson, british designer working with Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa, Michel Rojkind, the young mexican architect that is constantly evolving forms (see his works previously featured on AD), James Martin, the head consultant for legal issues for OMA, Albert Ferre, editor for the innovative publishing house Actar, among others. The diversity of their backgrounds (architecture, design, new media) make this event “boil” into architectural discussion.
For this years edition, the line up of speakers looks promising:
Shohei Shigematsu (OMA NY, watch our interview), Mikkel Frost from young practice CEBRA (watch some of their works on AD), Sissil Morseth Gromholt from PUSHAK (see their landscape friendly works previously featured on AD), Lea Pelivan + Toma Piejic from STUDIO UP (winners of this year’s Mies van der Rohe Award, Emerging Architects mention, with their Gym), Arnaud Billard from the climate engineering office TRANSSOLAR, Hans Ibelings, editor of A10 magazine, Mark Lee from Johnston&MarkLee (their interview will be soon posted on AD, you can seee their previous features here), Carmé Pinós, renowned spanish architect, and more. Check the full list of speakers here.
The good part? ArchDaily will be there! We will be participating in a round table under the theme “Legislation”, on Architecture and Media with Joseph Grima, Director for the Storefront Gallery (watch his interview here). We will also be making interviews -as usual- with the rest of the speakers and bringing you the insights on the emerging Croatian architecture scene.
