Ex-Marlstone Quarry As a Community Space
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Ex-Marlstone Quarry as a Community Space Results & Methodology 1. Building the (institutional) collaborative platform Collaboration is a basic postulate of This was the project milestone since it has every community. Still, we can witness its multiplied symbolical and material value both absence so often. of the grant and the project. The Faculty’s One of the project goals was to build a involvement ensured the participative platform of relevant partners that can and are moment in the best sense – even 27 graduate willing to work together on the revitalization students of the architecture study and six of ex marlstone quarry in Majdan. architect mentors worked voluntarily on a The key was to contact all the subjects daily base, for a month. It is also important to in the planning phase, so they were able to highlight that one of the strategic goals of the contribute with advices and proposals, University of Split is a close collaboration with recognize their interests and share the gravitating local governments and vice versa, ownership of the idea. and we can claim that the workshop Mayday! Project axis is made of the Local Majdan! Mayday! contributed to the government of the City of Solin, on the area of fulfillment of that scope. which ex marlstone quarry is situated, and The workshop required Croatian Forests – Administration Split, that multidisciplinary approach; therefore a manage it in the name of the Republic of landscape architect and an expert in the field Croatia as a part of the forest economic entity of art, design and public domain were “Mosor –Perun”. engaged. We had one more architect who During the submission for the ECF’s voluntarily joined as a guest critic at the public R&D grant, the Faculty of civil engineering, presentation in the Cultural Centre Zvonimir architecture and geodesy in Split agreed to Solin, and as a jury member. As we agreed become a partner and organize the student with the partners from the Croatian Forests architecture workshop. that only ecological principles of the intervention are eligible, the NGO Permaculture Dalmatia provided us with the and commented the student works, giving knowledge in the landscape reading and them the wider perspective on their ideas. zoning during the field work in Majdan. Finally, the (institutional) collaborative The ex marlstone quarry is located platform was built of: within NATURA 2000 area “Mosor, Kozjak and - City of Solin Trogir’s hinterland” - a protected bird habitat. - Croatian Forests The ichthyologic preserve of the Adriatic trout - University of Split, Faculty of civil is found just nearby, in the headwaters of the engineering, architecture and geodesy River Jadro. The expert manager of the Public - an action group consisting of 6 Institution for Management of Protected architects mentors and 27 students of the Natural Values in Split-Dalmatia County graduate architecture studies contributed with recommendations and - external experts: a landscape architect, an knowledge of the legislations that must be expert in the field of art, design and public followed. As well, consultations were held domain, an architect guest critic with the head of the City’s Department for - Public Institution for Management of communal activities, economy and the Protected Natural Values in Split-Dalmatia management of the space in order to get all County the necessary regulation regarding the - Cultural Centre Zvonimir Solin General urbanistic plan of the City, since the - CEMEX Croatia: the cement producer site is categorized as a protective green area. - NGO Permaculture Dalmatia Other important stakeholder, the This platform, the core of the local donator of the project as well, is CEMEX support group, enables not only participative Croatia. The company is the “heir” of the action planning and implementation of Dalmacijacement’s factory and properties in intervention in Majdan, but the future social Majdan, and represents an important subject and economic sustainability as well. The site for the future of the ex marlstone quarry should serve as a polygon or a lab for surroundings. institutions and NGO’s to implement their We also collaborated with the Cultural programs funded from different sources (ESF, Centre Zvonimir Solin, a driver of the cultural EU programs…), and its managing board could activities of the City, which provided the be a hybrid one, consisted of institutions and gallery space for the public presentation and NGO representatives. Once designed, it can be exhibition of the student works. They also almost self-maintained with a contribution of followed up the project in the local newspaper City’s communal company, which has already “Solin Chronicle”. agreed to care about the site. We noticed an institution in charge for This process required a lot of the water supply management, Croatian engagement and advocacy, but in the end the waters, of the project goals (if the irrigation of possibility of the mistake and dominance of the site should be necessary). They found the one stakeholder’s interests were significantly project valuable for the identity of the river reduced. Jadro spring and are expressed interests for the potential collaboration in the future. During the workshop, in the final phase, we had a special “Idea Camp” guest Gaetano Carboni, who presented his project 2. Asking the right questions Nikola Bojić, the expert in design person heirs the cartography of the site and studies and interrelations of art, design and has the power to animate and gather together public domain who worked on the project, both individuals and the wider community summed up the whole process of designing around ideas related with that specific site? If the public space in the following questions he or she exists, this person could become a that all the participants had in mind all the design medium. time: Users – Who are the persons we are Diving in the site - Are there traces in the designing the site for? What community space through which we could immerse knows of the project, so it could recognize ourselves into specific spatial logic? How could itself within the project goals? Why should we be able to access the lost memory of the anyone care about what is going to be space and develop an entirely new, designed on this specific site? How can local unforeseen spatial scenario? During this community use and benefit from the site in process, which material and symbolic artefacts the long-term perspective? Does the planned could come to the surface? Is there any vital intervention leave a possibility for changes, need for establishing a link between the past upgrades and new interventions (in the and the future? programming and spatial sense)? Person as a map - Who knows the Policies - Design is necessarily a people, history, stories, hidden locations? political act. In this case it must balance Who keeps the genius of the place? Which between two parallel lines: European Cultural Foundation - organization that has supported It turned out that the third, European element the research and thus set up the values to be (ECF) in the relations between institutions and linked to the project, and local dynamics and local community successfully catalyzes the needs that doesn’t have to overlap with the potential conflicts and changes the modes ECF’s scopes completely. How to balance, these subjects usually operate on the local which design and negotiation language to use “battlefield”. The symbolical advocacy and so we can conceive that the project doesn’t material support of the “external” institution lose the most important value – the one makes everyone think and act wiser, and it is reflecting upon the life quality and needs of possible to do things that would otherwise be the local community? almost unthinkable or extremely low on a priority list. 3. Student workshop Mayday! Majdan! Mayday! Designing the ex-marlstone quarry was not an tool for creating different atmospheres and ordinary assignment for the architecture features of the site. Hence, they stepped into students. The site is challenging thanks to its the area of the landscape design and botanic, historical narrative and the present state, its and took a research to find out the position, dimensions, and the fact that strict autochthonous plant species, their growth legal regulations had to be followed since it is cycle, time and color of their blossom... categorized as a protective green area With a help from the experts, at the according to the general urban plan of the very beginning of the workshop, they “read” City. Thou someone might say that these are the landscape and made a vegetation map of pretty restricting conditions, all the workshop the present condition during the field work. participants found it challenging in a positive The site is defined by the volatile, almost and creative way. vertical flysch slope – a consequence of Architecture students used a specific digging the marlstone on the east, Diocletian’s design language based primarily on the aqueduct - a protected cultural heritage on selection and arrangement of vegetation as a the north-west, and the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) forest on the south. The present Specialized literature was purchased plateau was piled during the last 10 years to for the purposes of the workshop, and fill up the hollow, where (rain)water used to donated to the Faculty’s library after the end, form a lake since the soil is poorly permeable. We awarded the students as well with a part The plateau was piled by the City in order to of specialized books, a gesture of appreciation build an additional stadium for the local and gratitude for their hard work. They also football club, but the Croatian forest did not received diplomas for participating in the approve this kind of intervention. In the last workshop.