Exhibition

IVANIŠIN. KABASHI. ARHITEKTI

Projects and Things

On Thursday, 8 July 2021 at 7 PM, Oris House of Architecture (Kralja Držislava 3) in Zagreb, an exhibition by IVANIŠIN. KABASHI. ARHITEKTI: Projects and Things is available on view.

On same day, at 6 PM, on Oris House of Architecture YouTube channel, you can watch a conversation with architects Ivanišin and Kabashi, moderated by Mia Roth Čerina.

The way of looking, the way of drawing, and the way of building are causally related. The way of looking at things around us reflects our understanding of the world, the Universe, the nature we inhabit and the artificial things we produce from the natural things at our disposal – the buildings, i.e. the actual architecture… The project as an abstract entity is similar to Plato’s form; discovered rather than created by us, non–imitative like a musical notation. As a thing itself, it is similar to Alberti’s projection window – a set of projected images and texts. Immaterial apart the ink, it is the definition of the future presence of things into the visible world, closest possible to their actual material presence. Apart from this inherent thingness, the real building in the real place has always been the final cause of every project. Except in the end–product, be it the actual building or the ink on paper if the act of building never takes place, the decisive looking – drawing – building relation remains documented in writings, images and things we intentionally or non–intentionally discover, touch and produce before, during or after the work on our projects, connected to the solutions of actual problems or seemingly by accident while traveling real or fanciful spaces, libraries and collections. Ordered in the logical sequence or placed within the actual space, those words, images and things may transcend their originally auxiliary purpose and become instrumental in the explanation of the marginal conditions of the project, expanding its scope and reference – the project domain as it were.

In our contemporary world of perpetual events, architecture remains a finite spatial experience. It requires close contact, it must be felt and touched without any intermediate filters. As such, it cannot be produced in void or taught from distance. Architecture is eminently thingly. Even our (digital) drawings alone have their own distinct thingness. Firmly anchored in the world of things, a thing itself made of things, every work of architecture is in opposition to the emergent world of events. 

At the exhibition in Oris House of Architecture we confront this world of events with our projects presented by the non – conceptual set of images and things arranged in the real space.

“The non – conceptual set of images and things” presents four recently completed buildings, one project, and one project in construction of the IVANIŠIN. KABASHI. ARHITEKTI practice. The buildings presented at the exhibition are the red housing block in Opatija, the family residence at Jabukovac in Zagreb, the setup of the exhibition about works of architect Vladimir Turina in Zagreb City Museum, and the Villa in the view in Dubrovnik which was recognized by the Croatian Architects’ Association jury as the best piece of housing architecture in Croatia in 2020. The two projects are the luxurious hotel in construction in the very centre of Zagreb, and the housing complex with the view to the open sea and the Old City of Dubrovnik. The projects and the completed buildings are documented with photographs, sketches, technical drawings, and samples of the artworks by Katarina Ivanišin Kardum which will make part of the hotel interior. Surprising things which directly or indirectly explain not only the exhibited projects, but also the way of looking at things, the way of drawing, and the way of constructing architecture by IVANIŠIN. KABASHI. ARHITEKTI are exhibited in the blue tunnel – pavilion originally erected in Zagreb City Museum and reconstructed in Oris House of Architecture for this occasion. The exhibition is accompanied by the book of the same name, designed by Zvonimir Prusina.

Architectural practice IVANIŠIN. KABASHI. ARHITEKTI was founded by Krunoslav Ivanišin and Lulzim Kabashi in Dubrovnik and Zagreb in 2003. They have won a number of competitions in Croatia and abroad, designed and constructed projects of various scales and purposes for private and public clients. Their housing architecture completions were five times nominated for Croatian Architects' Association annual prize for housing architecture. They were awarded the prize for Villa in the View in Dubrovnik in 2020. They have lectured and exhibited internationally, including the Venice Biennale International Exhibition of Architecture in 2010. Designing and building with them today are architects Iva Ivas, Nika Bralić, Jelena Burnić, Rudolf Raspudić and Ivan Mostahinić. Krunoslav Ivanišin is associate professor of architectural design at the University of Zagreb, School of Architecture.

Exhibition patrons:

Ministry of Culture and Media, City of Zagreb

Exhibition is available on view 8 July - 31 July / 23 August - 11 September

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