A children's maritime sanatorium for the treatment and rehabilitation of children with lung diseases was built in 1963-1964 not far from Makarska, in the town of Krvavica in Baško polje, in the middle of a dense pine forest and bordered by the sea on one side and mountains on the other. Constructed under the regimes of military construction undertakings, the object remained almost unknown to the wider and professional public for many years until, in 2008, Miranda Veljačić went to investigate it for the needs of the Oris magazine editors. In the field, she came across an abandoned and devastated building that was saved from ruin by the exceptional quality of the construction at the time, and she found the construction documentation, including information about the architect himself, in the rich archive of Lore, which contains all the documentation on military buildings.
A Floating Object In A Pine Forest
The complex in Krvavica is dominated by a circular floating volume on columns. In the ground floor there was an L-shaped multi-purpose space for children to rest and play, which communicates with the dormitories on the first floor via a two-pronged ramp. The fluidity and uniqueness of the interior space continues in the relationship between the building and the environment, and the boundaries between natural and artificial are erased through imaginative design. Playful roof volumes, in addition to breaking up the monumentality of the building and fitting it into the environment, together with cleverly placed windows enable ideal use of daylight and ventilation.
The Structure of the Complex
The complex consists of three buildings - a circular main building, a storage area and a residential wing for the staff. In the circular upper floor of the main building are children's bedrooms. There, double-sided natural lighting and ventilation were created by a fold in the ceiling. It was designed to function as a natural healing apparatus using wind, sun and nature. In 1974 the JNA turned the children's hospital into a hotel for its employees. In the 1980s it was expanded with prefabricated bungalows in the surrounding pine forest. During the Yugoslav Wars it was used as a refugee shelter. Since then the main building has been vacant, while the eight apartments are still inhabited. The efforts of the local municipal administration to demolish the building and establish a luxury tourism resort failed as the building was listed as heritage in 2015.
The Preventive Protection
This unique example of critical regionalism in modern architecture, which applies the canons of international style in a local context, was designed in 1960-1962 by Rikard Marasović, and a look at the photos and plans that we bring you clearly speak of the value and need to preserve this unique example of modern architecture in Croatia. However, until the middle of 2012, the building did not have any protection. Since the breakup of Yugoslavia, the facility has not been in its primary function. It is owned by the Republic of Croatia and managed by the state company Club Adriatic d.o.o. which was given the management of former military facilities. From devastation through commercialization for tourist purposes, this object in an attractive location was saved by the fact that it was not registered in the cadastre and especially by its economic unprofitability according to today's market standards. The decision on preventive protection, for three years, was issued on August 31, 2012 by the joint efforts of Platform 9.81 and the Split Conservation Department, and the object is now in the Register of Cultural Properties of the Republic of Croatia, on the List of Preventively Protected Cultural Properties.
Adapted on the text "Lebdeći objekt u Krvavici" by Tonči Kranjčević Batalić published in pogledaj.to
