Croatia’ capital Zagreb recently gained another architectural and cultural attraction: the Zagreb Dance Center was officially opened to the public inside a structure which used to be an old, abandoned movie theater in the heart of the city. Zagreb-based 3LHD were the project’s architects.

Here’s a project description from 3LHD:

The opening of big movieplex cinemas in Zagreb has led to the dying out of old cinema theatres in the city centre. The City of Zagreb, who is the owner of the old cinema Lika, decided to reuse the space for new cultural facilities. In that scenario old cinema Lika was given the role of a new dance centre.

Fifty years of contemporary dance culture in Zagreb has produced about 40 dance troops, with this project all of them will have a new home in the city centre. The cinema is located in a derelict residential block only 100 meters away from the Zagreb’s main square. The entire project’s program is determined by the gross developed area defined in the master plan and it places the project in the old cinema shell. The new dance centre which will house numerous dancers, choreographers, art troops and companies will have three multipurpose studios (one large studio with 150 telescopic seats and two smaller training studios), three spacious dressing rooms, bathrooms, storages for props and technology and office spaces.

The only new architectural element of the centre is the new entrance lobby, a polyvalent space in the service of communication and meeting with a cafe, library and a video store. It was interpolated on the basis of almost default parameters of the existing neighboring houses. The volume and its broken forms also suggest dance movement and they are a new sign and connection element between the courtyard and the roof terrace. The roof terrace is the final element of the centre and an important part of the project of preservation and restoration of Zagreb last open roof stage.

Zagreb Dance Center – Fact Sheet

Project name: Zagreb Dance Center - reconstruction of the old movie theater “Lika”
Short project name: Dance Center
Program: public, culture
Status: completed
Project year: 2003
Project start date: 2003
Project end date: 2005 / 2008
Construction start date: 11/2005 I phase; 11/2008 II phase
Construction end date: 09/2009
Location: Ilica 10
City: Zagreb, Croatia
Site area (m2): 1,360
Gross floor area (m2): 1,438
Volume (m3): 7,082
Footprint (m2): 760
Entry level (m): 123
Client: City of Zagreb
Author: 3LHD

Project team: Sasa Begovic, Marko Dabrovic, Tatjana Grozdanic Begovic, Silvije Novak, Jasminka Jug, Zorislav Petric, Zeljko Mohorovic, Dijana Vandekar, Marin Mikelic

Images: 3LHD