*콘크리트 파사드가 인상적인 스포츠 홀 [ Idis Turato ] Concrete-clad sports hall

지역문화의 앵커플레이스는 기존 장소가 가지고 있는 기억, 시간을 투영하는 작업에서 시작된다. 크로아티아 작은 마을, 크르크에 새롭게 건립된 스포츠홀은 지역사회에 주요한 거점; 공용광장에 자리하며 지역 커뮤니케이션을 위한 이벤트 스페이스와 초등학교의 다양한 스포츠를 지원하기 위해 건립된다.

인근 교회와 수도원으로 둘러 쌓여진 공용광장의 특징을 고스란히 투영하는 스포츠 홀의 파사드 디자인은 광장이 면한 북측면에 테라조로 마감된 다면체 콘크리트 패널과 슬라이스된 윈도우로 구성된 모놀리틱한 파사드를 수도원, 교회의 거친 석재 벽면과 맞다 있는 남측과 서측면에는 프리패브리케이션된 요철이 많은; 질감이 느껴지는 콘크리트 판넬로 마감된 파사드를 구현한다. 이러한 다면적인 건축은 인접한 주변 건축물, 대지의 장소성을 건축물에 투영함으로써 건축물이 앞으로 이곳에서 지향해야할 방향점을 제시하는 동시에 거부감없는 호모져로소한 -동질적인 유대감- 공간의 바운더리를 형성시킨다.

그리고 또한 투영하는 오브제를 그대로 답습하지 않는, 건축가 자신이 재해석한 현대적인 디자인을 건축에 투영함으로써 건축공간이 나아갈 방향점을 또렷이 한다.

reviewed by SJ

One of the main focuses of the Turato Architects' Hall and Square project in Krk was to finish an architectural dialogue started way back in 2005, when Idis Turato completed an elementary school, Fran Krsto Frankopan (with his former studio "Randić Turato").

The new hall, which opened shortly before the summer of 2013, is situated in the very vicinity of the above-mentioned school, just across a narrow pedestrian street. The completion of the new sports building and public square was a crown achievement of the architect's quest to complete an integral urban ensemble on top of Krk's old town, thereby creating a newly defined focal point of high importance.

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The newly built hall, aside from being a gym facility for the school pupils – who can now easily access it through an underground corridor - aims to meet demands of the local community as well, housing sports events as well as future cultural activities and public festivities on a larger scale. This is the reason why the north-eastern corner of the hall's facade opens up onto the square, providing functional continuity of passing through and enabling them to become almost one.

The school-hall-square assembly is surrounded by several churches and monasteries, as well as by two tall church towers that act as the square's vertical accents. Together, they all define and describe this wide public space, which, depending on occasion, can function both as a secular and an ecclesiastical pedestrian zone.

On the very site of the new hall there used to be an old student dorm, which had been used in past as a gym facility for the school. Prior to the hall construction it had to be demolished. The demolition, however, unearthed several new and important archaeological discoveries on the site, thus creating a whole new context for the hall itself.

All that had been found on the site had to be preserved as discovered. The architects took this fact to be crucial in redefining the concept according to the new input. This affected directly the very organisational scheme of the project. The excavated and preserved church and monastery walls were to become integral parts of the new building, with new walls and facades of the hall emerging directly from the restored, older ones.

Yet another contextual element was important in forming the shape and size of the building. These are the high walls, seen throughout the old town of Krk, especially around the aforementioned monasteries, enclosing the town lots, lining the narrow streets of the town. These site-specific structures surround the hall itself as well.

Behind these walls different stories are taking place daily, balancing between the public and the private, depending on the usage of the space enclosed. The high walls of the western hall facade, next to the Franciscan monastery, are then but a continuation of these town alleys. This is where the story of the walls, their origin, context and their shape began, resulting in variety of the facade walls, formally corresponding to the context, input and location.

Although seemingly set "back", on secondary surfaces (the western alley and southern facade), the most recognisable and by far the most unique element of the hall itself is a wall consisting of original and striking prefabricated concrete elements. The architect named these the innards due to their origin and their fabrication, and the ambiguity of the impression they leave upon the viewer, due to a formal factor of its (un)attractiveness.

The innards are in fact unique precast elements produced as a negative of a dry stone wall, or more precisely - made by placing stones in a wooden mould, covering them with a PVC foil and pouring concrete over it all. In this way the negative of the stones forms the "face" of the precast element. This inverse building process, a simple and basic fabrication with a distinct visual impact, is an invention of the hall's author. It happened as a result of researching simple building materials with a crafty bricklayer, with whom the architect had collaborated on several projects in the past as well.

On the other hand, the most representative facade of the hall, the one visually dominating the square, is the facade constructed out of six impressively large concrete monoliths, weighing up to 23 tons. The monolithic blocks are finished off with a layer of 'terrazzo', which is an ancient technique usually used for floor finishes, requiring hours of polishing by hand.

Here, however, the terrazzo is redefined and used vertically, fittingly renamed into a "vertical terrazzo". While this sudden vertical use of the finish creates a shiny and finely shaded facade, its "normal" use, on horizontal surfaces, is recontextualised and rethought once again, since this finish, usually 'reserved' for interiors, is now used for exterior surfaces of the public square.

The red colour of the square's terrazzo floor panels is in contrast to the lightness of the hall's facade. Its smoothness and slip-resistance is achieved by application of a layer of epoxy after polishing.

The fourth facade, facing the school, with its formal look and finish (done in plaster lime mortar) confirms that the new building remains in a direct communication with the existing educational facility, sharing its function.

from  dezeen