In the world of industrial architecture in our country, you rarely come across surprises: architecture and structures of new and different strength and expression. But when you find yourself in front of one, it immediately grabs your attention with its contrast with the background, a background with which it has nothing in common except its function.
In its unpredictable search for expression, modern architecture can come to solutions that shrug off the basic classical components and approach to design. This is how the industrial complex in Sombor justified this approach in which it was not enough for the architectural form to just follow function. It needed more. There was a need to elevate form into joy and satisfaction. The result was a complex of playful, rhythmic white structures rising from the spacious green carpet of the Pannonian plain.
This dynamic set of architectural diversity tells a tale of structural complexity and artistic refinement. The unusual concept of the complex is a product not only of the creator’s imagination and constant search for new architectural solutions, but also of solutions to several particularities of the location. Pressed by the limitations of the construction lines and the handicap of a city installation corridor intersecting the site, the
designer was looking for a solution that would give the complex the strength to find its place and the vitality to stand the test of time.
Burdened with the fact that two items, the car park and the complex itself, must be separated, and the lack of any site drainage infrastructure, the designer has made skilful use of the opportunity provided by these shortcomings, transforming them into a new quality. The car park and the complex have been connected with a strong pedestrian diagonal framed by an avenue of trees and a strip of landscaped greenery. The lack of infrastructure is skilfully solved by a circular lost well arranged to reflect the form of the complex, creating a portrait of the space itself. A sweet victory over hard facts, of new qualities over impediments, and satisfaction because the spirit and mind cannot be stopped in their eternal and persistent search for a solution.
The basic disposition of the buildings of the complex itself is based on developing a belt of factory halls around a central, circular atrium. This is the artistic and functional core of the complex. It is framed by a peristyle/covered porch - a form that to some extent testifies to the deep-rooted architectural heritage in the author's roots as a builder. The peristyle surrounds the circular corridor with its path for forklifts and pedestrians, from which a route for the fire engine continues towards the centre of the atrium.
Emphasizing the power of volume, the window openings of the buildings are reduced and withdrawn into the interior of the atrium, behind the architectural mass that achieves a space of repose, a little mystery of simplicity and gravity. At the same time, by orienting the openings towards the inner yard, the buildings open towards the common space, vegetation, sunlight…. They are permeated with nature, showing the investor's awareness of the importance of preserving and connecting with nature and the environment, and of the need for mutual communication and visual connection among those who work there.
Finally, the investor has also demonstrated environmental awareness and commitment by planning a recycling point.
The landscaping of the entire complex enriches the inevitable monotony, formality and coldness of technical architecture. The seven buildings of the complex, arranged in a circle around a circular park core, form a work of refined simple architecture that on a large scale can be experienced as a new topography of place.
Structura Concept doo. 2023
