Program text on the topics of the Congress

Without a doubt, this is a time in which the overlapping of general social circumstances and the global investment crisis is having a most profound impact on architecture and urbanism. Accelerated changes impose the obligation to think through the strategies that will allow us to face new challenges. Since the role of architecture in the spatial development process may be limited, but still hugely significant, we have to re-examine the condition in space with understanding and use this moment of crisis to reorganize the very manner in which our profession operates.

In this 3rd Congress of Croatian Architects we primarily wish to discuss the basic assumptions shaping our everyday operations with the aim of adopting guidelines for very concrete and necessary changes ensuring quality and sustainable development of our environment. We want them to become the backbone for a national "Architectural Policy 2013" and we want to encourage the widest possible range of participants to actively contribute to the condition in space, to observe with a critical eye, and to suggest long-term strategies for reconstruction based on concrete interventions.

At a time when profound changes are occurring in the Croatian economy, society, political and institutional organization, the guidelines of “Architectural Policy” become not only an incentive for sustainable activities in Croatia but they also represent a basic document demonstrating our contribution to overall European strategies.

Since Croatian reality is actually more complex than that of the developed European environment, we believe that the common strategic approach from the general to the specific, without the negation of illusory projections, must be abandoned and that we need to move from concrete questions to general answers – in other words, we need to start improving everything that we, as a profession, are capable of fixing, without waiting for global circumstances to improve and to permit us to take concrete, comprehensive action.

Since the advancement of the profession is possible only through intensive interaction and the exchange of knowledge, this congress will encourage participants to actively participate through presentations and discussions with Croatian and foreign experts, who will familiarize us with the spatial policies of their countries, their methodologies and the ways of promoting urban development.

Architectural excellence, as the only possible long-term strategy uniting ethical, aesthetic, and technical issues, is embodied in the physical changes in the appearance of cities. We would like to take this occasion to promote innovative and creative works realized within defined parameters, which are considerate and responsible towards their own context, while at the same time being sociologically and ecologically sustainable.

In order to approach these characteristics, we recognize the basic activities that will contribute to the removal of obstacles and foster quality and successful architecture and urbanism:

• Individualization of analytical and methodological tools for defining concrete and reliable parameters (needs, capacities, potentials) crucial for the planning and programming of balanced urbanistic and architectural undertakings.

• Creation of the preconditions for content-justified and feasible urban planning based on interdisciplinary and professionally justified assumptions.

• Clarification of the general principles of sustainability and, concretely, energy-efficiency for purposes of their meaningful application at all professional levels.

• Creation of a coordinated, comprehensive and functional legislative framework for operations.

• Inclusion of incentives for quality of architecture and urbanism in public procurement procedures.

• Recognizing the relevance of the existing construction, especially buildings with historical value, to the sustainable development of the Croatian construction environment.

• Promotion of cultural and architectural national identities – by education, validating construction heritage, spatial and natural specificities, awareness of the desired direction of economic development.

Since the architectural policy of a country, with clearly defined goals and guidelines, is the basic framework for quality professional activities, we believe it will also represent a reversal of negative trends. By discussing the above subjects, we wish to consistently contribute to a definition of architectural policy that will allow for the dignified and successful realization of architectural practices and that will result in a developed, humane environment we will hand down to future generations.

Organizational Committee of the 3rd Congress of Croatian Architects
Zagreb, June 21, 2010