43. Croatia

_Public Lavatory_

The medieval port city of Dubrovnik, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been undergoing a planned reconstruction, aiming to restore the city’s pre-war appearance and recreate its original architecture. Reconstructing the old tends to ring alarm bells for me, running the risk of creating a pastiche of the past.

The stone wall of the new building wraps around the old

Nenad Fabijanics small intervention does this with sympathy and understanding towards the historical buildings surrounding it, while managing to be modern at the same time. This public toilet, completed in 2002, is located between the medieval town, with its narrow gridded streets, and the harbour. Built adjacent to the Austro-Hungarian era port authority building, it defines a new path along the fourteenth-century city walls.

The 14th Century wall is enhanced by the new intervention

This is a simple and understated, yet luxurious, structure. Measuring only 22 m², the plan is long and thin (1,70 x 12,48 m), and the materials used are sympathetic to those of the surrounding buildings. The in-situ concrete structure is clad in local sandy limestone (Dalmatian Autochthonous stone), smooth and polished in contrast with the rough stone of the adjacent building.

Polished stone contrasts and complements the rough stone of the existing structures

Floor-sunk spotlights illuminate the open-air corridor outside the building.

Sculptural curve cut into the sharp protruding corner

Dramatic illumination

Its linearity is interrupted by a sculptural curve cut into one end of its sharp protruding corner, resembling a big drop of water. Two niches subtracted from the long wall contain drinking fountains.

‘Water drop’ sculptural detail

Drinking fountain niche

Inside, the walls are covered in black Angolan stone with stainless-steel doors and fittings. The toilets are illuminated in daytime by skylights.

The dark stone interior contrasts starkly with the calm exterior

Elevation

Long section

Plan

Cross sections

Photos: Vrbica & Tošović