REGEA Connects the Issues of Architecture and Energy in Croatian Cities

The city and people are the central theme of the sixth Days of Architects, which opened on Thursday in Dubrovnik organized by the Croatian Chamber of Architects.

The opening was held at the Akademis Student Dormitory, for which architects Tin Sven Franić, Ana Martinčić Vareško, and Vanja Rister were awarded professional awards Vladimir Nazor and Viktor Kovačić.

The president of the Croatian Chamber of Architects, Rajka Bunjevac, emphasized that architects need to open up to the space in which they operate, but also to the people for whom they design.

Alongside the unenviable urban planning situation in which most Croatian cities find themselves, we are in another unenviable situation. The European Union urgently needs to reduce dependence on fossil fuels from Russia.

Croatia, thanks to its natural potential, has opportunities for much greater use of solar energy for energy production, was one of the highlights of the REGEA director’s presentation on the second day of the conference. Croatia needs measures that are not just temporary – subsidizing energy prices that the government is implementing cannot last long. We are facing a very uncertain autumn and winter, and it is high time for essential and structural changes.

Architects know their job; they know how important it is to respect the given spatial frameworks, how important green infrastructure is to each individual neighborhood, but it is politics that sets the course. An individual can contribute to change, but without politics, matters for the profession become frustrating. It is a dreadful thought that a project like the student dormitory in Dubrovnik took 15 years to complete and that during that time the Public Procurement Law changed twice – this complicates and slows down any innovative ideas. The same is true today with renewable energy sources and energy efficiency.

Significant funds are being spent on subsidizing the increased price of energy. But this will not bring greater resilience to future high energy prices and their sudden changes. That is precisely why the REGEA team is developing new concepts for family houses, public, and multi-family buildings that will be presented to all key decision-makers. Our buildings must urgently start producing energy and at the same time be much more energy efficient.

We must be prepared for the coming winter. At this moment, we are neither prepared nor do we have a vision of how; we are dealing with one-time incentives, weekly price changes, masks and COVID measures, and government reconstructions, Domac stated, adding that there is not enough discussion about energy savings and energy efficiency measures that can already help our citizens today. It is known that reducing the temperature of a space by 1°C reduces natural gas consumption by 7-8%, and buildings account for 40% of total energy consumption. Under such conditions, solar power plants must become mandatory in coastal areas, just as centralized thermal energy production must be in continental Croatia. Individual gas heating must become part of history – for safety, economic, and climate reasons.

Cities struggling with chaos in construction and lack of urban planning, especially Zagreb, from which 50% of families have left the center, Sisak and Petrinja, which are still searching for a comprehensive solution, and the climate changes we are witnessing, provide the context in which the sixth Days of Architects took place.