Architecture and engineering supervision of an archive

Architecture and Engineering Supervision

The location of the State Archives in Sisak does not seem inspiring at all. The architects Nenad Kondža and Irena Vitasović nevertheless found the motives for the contextually of their project in these modest, even partly devastated surroundings. To turn disadvantage into advantage is a characteristic of engaged, relevant architects.

The State Archive is located on the edge of Roman town Siscia’s core grid, a town severely damaged in the transition process as well as in homeland war. The existing Archive building didn’t represent any social or urban stress of the narrow area. Therefore the main aim was to emphasize its public function and significance through the design and structure of the annex. The primary cladding material, corten steel, is contemporaneously evanescent, temporary, ephemeral (it rusts and transforms daily), monumental (steel and contextual, since the long Sisak Iron Factory tradition.

The new state archive annex follows the cornice height and structure of the old building, so the connection of annex with the old building is solved through creation of small entrance yards. The ground floor of the annex is made of a rough black terrazzo while the whole attic is covered with the same material (leaned, vertical and horizontal parts) – corten steel.

The building is a reinforced concrete structure consisting of walls and floor slabs, which is a logical response to the requirements regarding protection against fire, heavy loads in the storerooms and due to the possibilities of local constructors.

The Archive is designed as a highly efficient building in thermal aspects with the use of floor heating and cooling system together with thermal pumps. The windows in public and working places are protected against sun with sliding aluminum shades, whereas the ones in storerooms by the use od fixed shades perforated in the corten steel plates.

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