On the Mind as its Own Place

architects Dražen Juračić, Jelena Skorup
project Slava Raškaj Exhibition Pavillion, Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia
written by Tomislav Pavelić

 

The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven

John Milton, Paradise Lost, I/254-255

 

The Vrapče Psychiatric Clinic in Zagreb recently opened the Slava Raškaj Pavilion for exhibitions and visual artistic creation (or therapy) of the clinic’s patients. The dual purpose of the building, its location (restricting the access of outside visitors) and the specific nature of the users and their work significantly affected the architectural solution of Jelena Skorup and Dražen Juračić, but also this text.