A Metal Port

architects Sonja Miculinić, Bojan Leva
project Pavilion, Karolina Riječka Pier, Rijeka, Croatia
written by Ante Nikša Bilić

 

The pavilion on the Karolina Riječka pier defines, by its appearance and its geometry, the entire ambivalence of the location. Does the pier belong to the port or to the city infrastructure? Is it the maritime domain or territory of the land? If it belongs to the port it should be taken care of by the port authority. Port authorities respect their regulations and the administration inherited alongside all the Mediterranean disorganization. 

 

Thus the architecture of the pavilion follows the regulations set up by the port rules. The pavilion is a metal container; it is ten by twenty five meters, slit along the longer sides, welded together, joined in the shipyard and positioned next to the pier. It is serves the port, and the body of it corresponds to the tug boats, wharf cranes, tankers, hangars and a multitude of metal forms characteristic of a port.