Prethodno priopćenje
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2019.7
Neptun (Brioni) Hotel Complex on the Island of Veliki Brijun: Construction and Transformation
Viki Jakaša Borić
; Ministarstvo kulture RH, Konzervatorski odjel u Zagrebu, Hrvatska
Biserka Dumbović Bilušić
orcid.org/0000-0002-6560-8514
; Ministarstvo kulture RH, Konzervatorski odjel u Rijeci, Hrvatska
Sažetak
The text presents the transformation of the Neptun hotel complex on Veliki Brijun, based on the project by architect Eduard Kramer of Vienna and built between 1910 and 1912. Based on Kramer’s projects, historical photo-documentation and analysis of the current condition, the hotel complex was examined in the context of hotel construction in the Kvarner area, which was transformed with the development of tourism at the beginning of the twentieth century. The closed historicist concept was abandoned in favour of the more complex ground floor and open façades with loggias, as well as more social and recreational activities, which implied the introduction of public spaces such as a cinema, dance hall, music room, games room, indoor swimming pools, etc. At the same time, the Art Nouveau vocabulary, along with modern elements, gained primacy over the earlier dominant neoclassical expression. However, the complex was significantly altered with a series of interventions after World War II. The intervention to Neptun III, the biggest building of the complex, based on a project by the Slovenian architect Vinko Glanz, is particularly interesting. For the planned meeting of representatives of non-aligned countries in 1956 on Veliki Brijun, Glanz was tasked by the SFRY government to transform the Neptun hotel complex, which represents the gateway to the island, in line with the political aspirations of Yugoslavia. The paper presents Vinko Glanz’s unpublished designs for the reconstruction of Neptun III, as well as a conceptual design for the transformation of the entire complex. In addition to Glanz’s interventions, other significant changes, like the reconstruction of the swimmingpool building and the Neptun II building, were identified. These interventions contributed to the complete differentiation of parts of the originally homogeneous unit, which opens up numerous questions regarding the future restoration and presentation of the complex. Although the Neptun complex was built as a functionally connected unit with a consistent form, later interventions negated this fact. Each period transformed some buildings in accordance with the spirit of the time, or the historical and political context, not respecting their cohesion and relationship. This approach led to diversity and disparity, and also to complexity of the entire complex – which, in spite of everything, inherited cultural, historical and urbanistic-architectural values. The complex, with Art Nouveau characteristics, from the time of investor Paul Kupelwiesor and designer Eduard Kramer, presents the period when the hotel complex on Veliki Brijun was created, and from which one of the most sought-after holiday resorts of the Monarchy developed. As such, it occupies a significant place in the review of the first hotel buildings built for the conditions and climate of the region, and also in the wider context of tourism development in the northern Adriatic under the auspices of Austrian entrepreneurs and Viennese influence. This layer, except in the basic four-part concept of interconnected volumes, is preserved in the loggia system that appears as the dominant part on the main and back façades of Neptun III.
The transformation that Vinko Glanz carried out in the 1950s was an intervention in which the ideological component played a crucial role, giving the designer a problem with the presentation. The reduction of certain parts of Neptun III in favour of achieving straight lines and abstract forms deprived the entire complex of significant features. Even though he was aware of removing essential properties – decorative and imaginative aspects as an association with the aristocratic past of the island – Glanz retained the structure of the horizontal and vertical lines which formed deep loggias that are part of each room. This grid, purified and accentuated by the project, has remained the dominant manifestation and identity of Neptun III and can be assessed as the most valuable contribution to the reconstruction. The third phase or layer is of interventions on Neptun II in the sixties, and the swimming-pool building in the late seventies, even though they were not the work of the same designer, nor did they derive from the same period. Regardless, they are the expression of the same artistic intention in the sense of reducing decorative elements in favour of an abstract composition of geometric character and purity. Each one carries certain qualities, although, in the context of the entire complex, they are in fact not uniform. The complex is in need of a thorough reconstruction that will affirm its significant properties. In the abstract language of the 21st century, in conjunction with the sequence of transformations carried out in the 20th century, it is necessary to reshape certain parts of the complex in a way that will restore its uniformity and vividness of outline. In this sense, only Neptun III should be dominant and of accentuated verticals, while Neptun II should retain the character of a subordinate building with its shape adapted to the entire complex. The future project proposes to maintain and present the concept of the façade with loggias that was innovative when it was made, and is today a testimony to the strategic thinking and development of hotel architecture in this area.
Ključne riječi
Paul Kupelwieser; Eduard Kramer; Veliki Brijun; Neptun hotel complex; historicism; Art Nouveau; modern art; Vinko Glanz
Hrčak ID:
231884
URI
Datum izdavanja:
31.12.2019.
Posjeta: 2.706 *