Urania

Zagreb

Geolocation
45°48'56'' N
15°59'47'' E
Address
Eugen Kvaternik square 3/3
City
Zagreb
Country
Croatia

The old Urania cinema is a typical back-building in the block of Kvaternik Square. Although built in 1939, the entire concrete structure of the building is very well preserved with all the supporting pillars, the main arches in the large hall and all the ceilings.

The ceilings are a special example as one of the first concrete structures with longitudinal repetitive narrow structural ribs from that period. That beautiful example of early concrete engineer technology was worth preserving, restoring and renovating.

The building had good predispositions to be adapted, converted and reused into a new office and public space. We kept three of the four original building volumes; the three storey entrance foyer and office building, the big lobby and the spectacular main double height cinema hall. The only new addition is the glass pavilion, which originally served as an entrance space of the cinema.

The former cinema hall had a three-nave cross-section with a 9m high central volume and two 3m high side aisles. The biggest challenge was converting this space without any natural light into a functional workspace. During the reconstruction the central volume was divided into two floors. Light was introduced into the ground floor by converting the old cinema halls side aisles into open atriums. On the first floor, the light was provided through the roof – three meter wide skylights were placed on the roof, through the entire length of the hall.

Most of the original structural materials have been retained - original brick walls, raw plaster, concrete on floors and ceilings; while all new equipment was made of three materials - oak for floors and spruce veneer and raw steel for wall cladding and interior finishing’s.

The new Urania houses public spaces for various cultural events and a couple of office spaces.

 A multipurpose hall equipped with multimedia and stands is connected to a café bar with a patio and a roof terrace.

It is a point of social gathering and public activities, as well as a space for numerous events such as educational workshops, presentations, exhibitions, concerts, screenings and the like..

Fact Sheet

Project name

Urania

project number

264

program

public, office, reuse

status

completed

project

2017 - 2018

Construction

2018 - 2019

Location

Croatia, Zagreb, Eugen Kvaternik square 3/3

Site area

830 m²

Size

1472 m²

volume

5919 m³

Footprint

749 m²

altitude

115.90 m

author

3LHD

Project Team

Saša Begović, Marko Dabrović, Tatjana Grozdanić Begović, Silvije Novak, Paula Kukuljica, Dragana Šimić, Denis Hrvatin, Marijana Pivac, Davor Plavšić

Project team collaborators

Nives Krsnik Rister, Mia Andrašević, Branimir Turčić, Jan Ružić

Structural Engineering

Palijan - Ivan Palijan

Electrical Engineering

Elektroplan - Mladen Stošić

Mechanical Installations

Grga - Ivan Grgić

Mechanical Installations Consultant

Termotehnika Paun - Vladimir Paun

Fire safety

Inspekting - Maksim Carević

Geodetic survey

Knez-invest - Roni Mahić, Ante Knez

Lighting design

Ortoforma - Ninoslav Kušter

Mechanical installations

Planetaris - Natko Bilić

Details and building physics consultant

Mateo Biluš

Plumbing, drainage, hydrant network - infrastructure

Projektni biro - grijanje - Srđan Grujić

Recording of the existing situation

Vektra - Zlatan Novak

Landscape Design

Kreativni Krajobrazi - Kaja Šprljan Bušić, Ines Hrdalo

Irrigation project

Inaqua - Zlatko Kramarić

Construction site supervision

Forel projekt - Lucija Ivas

Photography

Jure Živković

Film: Making of Urania

Svjetionik - Domagoj Blažević

General Contractor

SDMS

Subcontractors

Bajkmont, Tehnoplast profili, S.B.S., KFK Tehnika, Internova, Prostoria, D2D, Aquaestil


Photos

Construction site

Drawings

Video

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