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Review article

https://doi.org/10.31664/zu.2020.107.07

The Quality of Architecture in the Implementation of the State-Subsidized Housing Construction Programmes (POS) 2001–2020

Borka Bobovec ; Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, The Croatian Museum of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia
Ivan Mlinar ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia
Andriana Pozojević ; Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, The Croatian Museum of Architecture, Zagreb, Croatia


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Abstract

The most important housing construction programme in Croatia before 1991 was the Socially Oriented Housing Construction, the so-called DUSI. It was launched in the mid-1970s, and its starting points and results served as a solid basis and impetus for preparing further housing programmes in Croatia after it achieved state independence in 1991. When developing the State- Subsidized Housing Construction (POS), the initial idea was not only to affirm subsidized housing, but also to build up a social housing policy by relying on the experience of DUSI. The aim was to create and maintain a clear position in all segments of the society, including the state administration and local self-management bodies, that all citizens had the right to affordable housing. All elements of the implementation of POS were based on the provisions of the Law on State-Subsidized Housing Construction, adopted in 2001. All creditworthy candidates were granted the right to purchase POS apartments, but exclusively from the priority lists of the local self-management units. In its take-off phase, POS contributed to the quality of architecture, mostly through a series of architecture and city-planning public design competitions, which resulted in excellent designs and constructions of apartment buildings and the affirmation of a new generation of Croatian architects. The apartment buildings built as part of the POS programme brought to the young architects a number of prestigious national and international awards and acknowledgments, and the high level of architectural production improved Croatian architecture as a whole. However, this initial success of POS was followed by a period of qualitative and quantitative lag behind the previously achieved excellence. Unfortunately, in 2004 architectural competitions were discontinued and the contracts for architectural designs were now carried out according to the principle of public procurement, which preferred low price over quality. The difference in the quality of constructed buildings is obvious when comparing those built between 2004 and 2007—among which there was still a significant number of those designed and constructed on the basis of design competitions held from 2001 to 2003, which won professional awards—to those from the later phase of POS, where the number of awards is negligible. In order to move away from the current trends and mediocrity, it is important to reconsider the whole idea of POS, that is, to bring it back to its original concept—the construction of high-quality, affordable apartments in good and stimulating living environments, guided by all the relevant parameters. Thereby it is not enough to adhere to the existing legislative framework, but rather to work systematically on the adoption of new guidelines and standards, revising them in the context of the current social situation, which indicates the need to launch new programmes and to adopt a housing strategy in line with other programmatic and strategic documents.

Keywords

State-Subsidized Housing Construction (POS); housing construction; housing; housing settlement; apartment building; quality of architecture

Hrčak ID:

257941

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/257941

Publication date:

1.12.2020.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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