Pula

Cities as a repeatedly reshaped construct of political ideologies expose existing and past narratives. Pula is scarred by its political and economic upheavals of the last 150 years, which highlight the complexity of its many realities: Imperialism, Fascism, Communism, Neoliberalism (Planiranje Pule, Jurcan 2008).

Today, in addition to mass tourism, the city is threatened by a decline of the coast as a result of the climate crisis. At the same time, since the Yugoslav Wars, the population is continuously in decline, exaggerated by emigration following Croatia‘s joining the

European Union. The question of long-term development in de- or post-growth arises. We approach the city from the background, from its hinterland. From there, where the substance of the city comes from, or the used material is deposited again.

The studio ‘Pula – Hinterland in Foreground’ searches for the structure-forming resources of the territory, its historical layers, and the correlations between the core and its hinterland. After a collectively developed matrix in form of a cartographic atlas of situations and patterns, concrete scenarios and urban designs were developed at multiple scales.