The New Croatian Zagorje Countryside

The thesis deals with the concept of territory (territory of the Croatian Zagorje Countryside), and the reading of the layers that comprise its (im)material phenomenology. The idea of an integral space is expressed through the scale of the House for pumpkins, goats and people.

The thesis studies the territory of the Zagorje countryside based on the issues of its current state and sets a strategy for the development of the new countryside. The newness, however, is not based on a novel approach to constructed structures, but on a thought-out programmatic development concept based on principles of organic agriculture and redefined property rights relations. The urbanisation of the countryside is developing at an ever accelerating pace of the flow of information, rather than on the basis of construction as such. The house for pumpkins, goats and people is the result of a comprehensive deliberation of the territory of the Zagorje countryside. It is home to a programme (oil production and sale, goat farming and rural tourism) that tackles the current issues of the area in a playful manner. The agricultural plots, arable land, and spaces between the constructed structures have always been the foundation of rural life and economy, with the Zagorje landscape a direct result of agricultural activities. The only possible protection of the rural landscape of Zagorje (and consequently, its countryside and villages) is its reactivation, primarily the reactivation of its agriculture. Rather than seeking its embodiment, the project is envisaged as a social and spatial protest aimed at the active protection of the Zagorje landscape and the revival of its declining agricultural activities. The house is designed using the elements of its surroundings, and the layers extracted from its (im)material territory/context; it transcends the borders of architecture, and can only be construed as a programmatic diagram developed on a hilly topography.