Rajka Bunjevac: We Have the Most Beautiful Homeland in the World, but Also 800 Thousand Illegal Buildings

The Croatian Chamber of Architects announced on Friday, reporting on the results of the round table, that more than half of the activities planned under the current Architectural Policy of Croatia have not yet been implemented.

Apolitika, a document that determined years ago what needs to be done for quality and responsible spatial management, defined about fifty activities that were to be carried out, grouped into ten thematic areas. Only about twenty measures have been implemented, which represents about half of the planned number of activities, it was stated at the round table “Where is ApolitikA Today?” organized by the Croatian Chamber of Architects (HKA) and the Association of Croatian Architects (UHA) held on Thursday evening at the Croatian Museum of Architecture in Zagreb on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the document Architectural Policy of the Republic of Croatia 2013-2020, ApolitikA, National Guidelines for Excellence and Culture of Construction.

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To achieve a higher level of construction culture, cooperation between politics, competent authorities, the profession, and the public is necessary, and the demand for quality built space and architecture in that space must become an integral part of all development strategies of the Republic of Croatia, it was concluded.

– We have the most beautiful homeland in the world, but also 800 thousand illegally built buildings that show us that we treat its space – like a stepmother. We have spent billions to irretrievably consume one unique Croatian space, without thinking that this architectural ‘heritage’ will remain in the space for another 100 or 200 years after we are gone, emphasized Rajka Bunjevac, a member of the Management Board of the Chamber of Architects, in her introduction.

Participants of the round table, including representatives of the Ministry of Construction and Spatial Planning and the Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb, concluded that the goals defined by Apolitika have not been achieved, and the prescribed activities have only been partially implemented. To identify problems and recommend directions for their resolution, it is essential, with the help of the architectural profession, to analyze the results of the previous implementation of Apolitika, it was highlighted.

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It was particularly emphasized that institutions have not improved the way the public participates in decision-making processes regarding development, planning, and spatial arrangement. Additionally, an appropriate system for evaluating, recording, and protecting valuable architectural heritage of the 20th and 21st centuries has not been established to enable its sustainable restoration and use, it was stated.

Architects warned that the legislator has not reinstated the obligation to create a conceptual design or conceptual project before the main project is developed, nor has it introduced the obligation to assess the architectural excellence of projects before obtaining a building permit.

The ministries have not yet ensured that the provisions of the Public Procurement Act are applied in a way that promotes the excellence of architecture and the built environment, although the legal prerequisites for this have been met. Tomislav Ćurković from the Management Board of the Chamber emphasized that the legislative framework should be improved and that the price of project or spatial plan development must not be the main criterion for selecting bidders, especially when it comes to work on protected cultural monuments and other significant interventions in space.

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Participants in the discussion concluded that at the regional and local levels, it is necessary to define specific projects in space that can be implemented while respecting the provisions of architectural policies. For their implementation, they emphasize, no additional financial resources are needed, but rather a more quality direction of existing funds for spatial and communal development.

They also highlighted the need to start developing a new housing policy through an interdisciplinary approach that will include the creation of criteria and guidelines for planning residential neighborhoods.

The moderator of the round table and president of the UHA, Emil Jurcan, emphasized that it was necessary to confront the qualitative goals of architectural policies, such as the quality of built space, with the quantitative decline in investments in construction during the crisis.