Rijeka is a city in the very northwest corner of croatia and doesn't have much in the way of noteworthy contemporary architecture except for this project and a couple others. Randic-Turato definitley have a massing idea for this building in addition to the techtonics, and the massing certainly influences the reading of the terracota skin. As you can see from the aerial view, terracotta roofs are of the vernacular for this area, as well as simple gabled roof forms. The architects used the gable roof and the tarracotta material as the only characteristics that relate to the vernacular architecture. There is a third element in this project which is the architect's poetic statement on the vernacular.

By wrapping the exterior walls with the terracota the architects have prepared the canvas for their brush strokes. The simplicity of the form and simplicity of materials allow for the more dynamic poetic statement of the terracotta layout and spacing. One could argue that the bodelst, most poetic statement is the pure terracotta mass itself, but I think the real expression comes out in the variegated mesh-like quality of the material as it stretches across the building face.

In a way the skin of this building is like a chameleon, not in the literal color-changing sense, but in how it is trying to blend in with the local vernacular language of stereotomic running bond masonry while flipping the local vernacular on its head to open up to a new way of working with this material.

I wanted to visit this project because of how it approached terracotta as a modular metarial. From what I saw in photos I couldn't discern how the system was executed and wanted to find out. When I saw it in person I wasn't surprised to find that the exterior walls and the roof are a rainscreen. The rinascreen system looked good from a distance all the way up to about 5 feet away. From within 5 feet away you can start to see the support structure and membrane flashing around the transitions. I was a bit dissapointed that the craft of the terracota mesh system only looked good from a distance. Ideally, there would be another layer behind the orange terracota that revealed yet another layer of the techtonic idea. It's like the scene from Wizard of Oz when Toto moves the curtain to reveal that powerful Oz is just an old man pushing buttons and pulling levers to create some intimdating effects.

I still think the project is beautiful and has a compelling statement, but I also wish the poetic expression of this approach to craft went beyond just the surface of the skin.

At the end of my visit the sun came out casted these dappled shadows on the terracotta. It seemd to echo what the terracotta was trying to do with the variegated spacing of the bricks. It struck me as a beautiful dialogue between the building and its surroundings.