Short Cuts of one new-old House

"The day I started building a house, I did not know I would draw a picture of myself"
(C.Malaparte - Casa come me)

LOCATION
In the area of stone environment on the east coast of Adriatic sea, in the area of less than 10 km distance there are remains of three capital historic monuments: ancient roman city of Salona (I-V century), the Palace for imperator Diocletian (295/305) and medieval fortress of Klis. That is area , one house has been built for about 150 years, and process is still going on.

CIRCUMSTANCES
Stone Mountains, stone islands and many stone cliffs had supplied material both for city, palace, fortress and for shelter and house. It had been so until the rise of industry in this area. In the same 10 km distance, besides historical monuments, on the turn of XIX/XX century five cement factories were built. New material, concrete, cheaper and easy to manipulate had appeared. In the same area, the socialistic period is marked with new industrial giants of shipyard and plastic factory, and even steel factory. New materials created new sensibilities, too.
Today, next to antic Salona is the "Coca-Cola" complex, as a symbol of global culture. Ingredients for drink are coming maybe even from the USA, as well as plywood is coming from Indonesia, air condition units from Japan, from somewhere are coming everything what you can find on our small planet or in our big global village.
In that space and circumstances, with mixture of historical romanticism and futuristic fascinations, one house has happened to be built. My great grandparents started, grandparents and parents continued, and today my wife and me are still keeping the building process going on.

CONTENTS
In hundredfifty years of house , with one split in two functional parts and several additions, change of functions, spaces have changed their use and character. Old vernacular, stone house from agricultural period has been transformed in house for the summer holiday and weekend rest and joy. Almost every room in four level house, today has its own identity.
Podmornica (Submarine) ex storage space with stone walls, old wooden beams and boards , new ground concrete floor and large nutwood table, is dining room now. It is dedicated to the first generations of "stone" builders, to our grandparents. Name is related to the position of depression comparing to the entrance, and also its maritime feeling might be connected with my grandfather's ten years service in the "Franz Joseph Navy".
Konoba (Cellar) ex room for wine ,oil and smoked meat storage , these days has only some bottles of wine and few smoked hams (prsuto).
Veranda (2.level) is built in the sixties as an reflection on one Zagreb villa veranda, used mostly for card playing. In seventies another veranda is built on 3.level, and partly used for the parent's bedroom bathroom (protected from the outside views).
Tinel (tal.tinello=dining room) is enlarged ex-tinel on the account dismantled kitchen and changed its function . Nowadays it serves as living room . As a memory on an open smoke hearth that had been in this house, a modern fireplace is built. Its design is due to rationality, low expenses and easy transmission of heat (that’s why aluminium fuels), small intervention in roof wooden construction (that's why two tubes). As the fireplace gained an industrial and steamship image, it is named Titanic. Because ex-tinel was organised by my parents as representative guest room, this one is dedicated to them.
Vidikovac , observation room, belvedere on the 4.level , is the last phase in the growing process of this house. It is made with an ambition to mark nowadays (of course available) circumstances and possibilities in construction. In function it serves as studio and sitting room. Two Wassily chairs there reminds me on my work in the Marcel Breuer's office in New York in the 1972.
Komora (tal.camera=bedroom) on the 3.level is parents bedroom furnished with wedding furniture (mobilia) from 1932. and children bedroom on the 2.level (where I was born on 25.IV,1947.)
One unused ex-storage space in basement is planned to be sauna for the sake of health and pleasure but also as a memory for my one year living in Finland in 1975/76.
Exterior spaces are entrance Rampa, spacious ( Dvor=court) courtyard, former water tank (Bunar), and in summer time often used grill (Roštilj).

VIEWS
Main value of this house is not view on but views from the house. It seems that its location is just in the centre of a dramatical and spectacular landscape and building happenings all way around. The east and the west are marked with the Mosor and Kozjak mountains, on the north are steep stone cliffs with dominant position of the fortress. The south is stage with completely exposed the city of Split (250.000 inhabitants, second big Croatian city) with its poetical Marjan hill, there is town of Solin with area of old Salona, places Vranjic, Mravince....Some important edifice are seen as the football stadium, shipyard, cargoport, military port, cement factory…There are islands of Brač, Šolta and Čiovo in the first row, and Hvar and Vis in the second.
All these views are possible from the belvedere on the top. One piece glass sheet toward south seems as attractive painting, what inspired one of our guests to name that window :Picasso. (Our guest was not at all familiar with art and painting but only "heard for the greatest painter on the world", and with his name he only expressed his admiration for the view. We kept the name).

METEOROLOGY
This location gives full feeling of all weather temperament and attraction. Very cold and strong (among the fiercest on the coast) is northern wind bura that blow with whistling almost attacking the house and trees around. Southern wind jugo brings a plenty of rain and house might be quite wet afterwards- but luckily sun and bura make it again dry. Summer sun and heat push you in the deepest corners of house ( or to the 15 ' by car distant beech), outside leaving only restless singers cicadas, and pleasant summer nights are with stars and sounds of crickets. Short and sudden summer storm can be with plenty lights and thunder around house. In summer after a long dry period, fire can happened easily. Last year it was a real danger-less than hundred meters from house was stopped.
Very romantic morning sunrise and evening of moon appearing on the Mosor sky-line. Also, winter sunset might be very picturesque when orange sun circle in reddish blue tones of sky disappears in the sea.

GARDEN
Around the house there are some vegetation that needs no big care to grow. In one tiny corner there are trees of laurel, mulberry and two nuts (one is "grandchild" of previous one that my father planted and which gave us timber for the big table in dining room). Two big pytosphora and two cypress are besides ramp, big and small Celtis is on the each side of house. Very old row of iris is recently accompanied with several Punica and Mespilus plants. Plum and fig tree are of fruits. Above the court there is a trellis of grape-vine because of pleasant shadow, grapes and pleasant feeling. Remained pieces of stone blocks and stone tiles , found around house, are piled in an elongated wall that in an instant moment reminded on the famous house on the Capri and it was named "Malaparte".

FAMILY SENTIMENT
From the first beginning till 1936. big family had lived in this and adjacent house (when the house among the brothers were split into the two parts and two families) , in 1970.my parents abandoned house of permanent living and was used only for temporarily visits . After my father's death in 1979 . use was minimal until 1987. when my wife and me have started renewal of house with very intense weekend and summer holidays visits two of us (our kids are coming rarely). The house has been built and enlarged by the Pleština family (Stipe-Mate/Bile-Mijo/Miško-Mijo/Mikela-Lenko) in the neighbourhood of the same family relatives. The first sign of some building activity on this location (I assume) is documented on the Venetian military engineer Giusepe Santini's drawing from 1668., where one ruined house is in the foreground (probably destroyed in the Turkish-Venetian war). That house might had been a core of later built neighbourhood on that spot. I assume that , at that time, a part of the Pleština family came here from 1 km distant settlement below the fortress, because of overcrowdness there. These details from the family traditions give us special feeling being in house.. Without that particular sentiment value of house is reduced, of course.

CONSTRUCTION AND MATERIALS
Phases in erection of this house are reflection of building technique, available materials and skills of craftsman's in certain period. Initial house and first additions are from stone . So, stone walls are in the lower levels and the core of house. Stone blocks of 20-30-40-50 kg, some even more , are in the walls of 60 cm width, and they are able to carry later upper loads, as though the first builder had expected future growth. Firstly , walls of were extended for the third level in stone/concrete walls. Inside hole was only cut with wooden floors. Later concrete lateral additions reinforced whole stability. Recent reinforced concrete slab on the top connected all walls in firm box, and gave possibility for the forth level of house. The last phase is exploiting new materials steel, aluminium and glass- supposed to be modern romantic counterpart for old stone.

DESIGN
This house has been made in a long process (1870-1880-1890-1932-1938-1958-1960-1962-1976-1997/2001). The beginning was in time with no possible imagination about materials or installation that would come later, what made a change both functional and constructional. New circumstances changed the initial image of stone house. The scale and proportion changed, texture of surfaces changed , size and protection of openings, size of particular rooms, completely new contents has appeared (bathrooms, modern kitchen) and some old disappeared (stable, open fire). All those changes have changed the feeling of the house. Anyway , today house has both traditional elements (like stone walls in dining room, in cellar) and modern themes(as ribbon window in observation room). With those signs the process and time passing has been registered.

CONCLUSION
If there is no changes around , house will keep its initial condition, otherwise- house that is in a use, is going to be changed in proportion of change of its inhabitants, builders and building circumstances . If we accept as logic and sincere thesis in architecture that "form follows function and construction", old stone house -was to be deserted long ago, possibly conserved and left as a frozen document of traditional way of building and living, or -had to grow and transfer on the way it has been happened, that has both kept the house old and made it new.. Maybe there is even an third approach , but it was not discovered in this process.

P.S.
Working on the reconstruction of this house I concluded also, that it has become a portrait of my family and myself, too.

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slika 1 / fig. 1	slika 2 / fig. 2	slika 3 / fig. 3
slika 4 / fig. 4

slika 1
Giusepe Santini (venecijanski vojni inžinjer): Crtež Kliške tvrđave sa podgrađem iz 1668. godine. Razorena kuća u prvom planu mogla bi se nalaziti na lokaciji gdje su izgrađene "Pleštinove kuće" unutar kojeg sklopa je kasnije izgrađena i ova ovdje opisana kuća
fig. 1
Giusepe Santini:The Klis Fortress, drawing from 1668. Destroyed house might have been on the location of latter growing the Pleština neighborhood

slika 2
Vidikovac sa sjevernim trakastim prozorom i vizurom na tvrđavu iz 1999. godine Pod i parapet je lakirana šperploča, a dva stolca Wasiliy su sjećanje na biro Marcela Breuera
fig. 2
Observation room with northern ribbon window and view towards the fortress. The floor is polished plywood, and two Wassily chairs are memory on the Marcel Breuer office in New York

slika 3
Podmornica-blagovaonica sa starim kamenim zidovima, drvenim stropom i stolom od orahova drveta
fig. 3
Submarine-dining room with old stone walss , wooden ceiling and nutwood table

slika 4
Gornje etaže kuće-prozor Picasso na jugu- sa avionom za gašenje požara , snimljeno pred samo ispuštanje vode na vatru nadomak kuće, 15.VIII,2000.
fig. 4
The third and forth levels of the house (Picasso window on the south) with fire brigade airplain that is going to drop water over the fire near by, 15.VIII,2000.