Kotor APSS Architectural Prison Summer School and APSS TALK Conference

Below is a brief information about our workshop, for more info you can visit our page at www.kotorapss.me Location: Old prison building in Kotor, Montenegro (UNESCO World Heritage site) Mentors and lecturers at Kotor APSS 2013: Dijana Vučinić, DVARP, Montenegro Boštjan Vuga, SADAR+VUGA, Ljubljana Simon Hartmann, HHF architecten, Basel Saša Begović and Marko Dabrović, 3LHD Architects, Croatia Andreas Ruby, Ruby Press, Berlin. Hubert Klumpner and Alfredo Brillembourg, , Urban-Think Tank, Zurich Ivan Milošević and Marko Stjepčević, AIM studio, Montenegro There are two main parts of Kotor APSS:


• Summer school workshop with final work exhibition and student presentation,

• Final conference ”APSS talk” and Panel discussion based on the workshop Topic and Conclusions. Final conference is open to wider public

Kotor APSS 2013 Topic South Adriatic is used as a common name for a part of Adriatic coast that includes Montenegrin coast and southern Croatian regions. This space was merged by one of the first regional plans – “Regional plan for South Adriatic” proposed in the late sixties of the last century (1964-1968). The plan has been an initiative of the Government of SFR Yugoslavia, implemented together with United Nations Development Programme. As one of the last year mentors - Architect Branislav Gregovic pointed out - many perceive this plan as the beginning of an institutional approach to spatial planning in this part of former Yugoslavia and, at the same time, a plan that initiated the modernization of this part of the former country. The plan itself has marked the beginning of the tourism as an economic branch in the region. Tourism has been considered as an addition and insurance to the existing economy and the way to bring leisure closer to working people of industrialization. Fifty years later Tourism has a completely different role in our society. It is considered as the main development lane of Montenegrin economy and the greatest challenge for urban planning. While “Regional plan for South Adriatic” has measured tourism growth by the growth of infrastructure, culture, employment and production, we lost track at some point during the 90s and focused on the number of beds. Demand for leisure became equal to demand for occupied beds and the number of nights spent on the coast. One of the key moments that have influenced urban chaos in Montenegrin coast seems to be the introduction of the apartment as a tourism unit. Apartment, or bed production has been much cheaper, faster and less demanding than hotel building. The unit itself has multiplied and shaped the architecture as well as the wider urban context and certain patterns in social behavior. During the 90s, the apartment unit has created the urban chaos in the city on the coast we are struggling to correct today. The workshop will explore the question of “place” in wider urban context and its transformation under the influence of market demands and rapid development pushed by transition. We want to go back and examine the essence of the city and its architecture on one side, and residential unit as one of the fundamental elements of any urban environment on the other side. The workshop will investigate new elements that will redefine relationship between architecture and the city, and improve urban background by changing architectural fundamentals such as tourism housing unit.