ramonda mountain hotel & spa / rtanj mountain, serbia / 2020.
Relation between architecture and context is as ancient as the first skill of a man to build a shelter. Sometimes a context can be selected, whereas sometimes it is imposed. Geological, morphological, artificial or natural, historical, sociological, labile or stable, always variable, never simple, the context is the substantive - the basic matter of architectural creation. Weighting recognizable factors of the context, is probably one of the most important measuring tools used by architects, whether they turn their back on it, greet it by spreading their arms, or simply, don’t disturb it through specific game of mimesis. In fact, we weigh what kind of trace we will leave in environment, by creating a new context, complex context of living.
Mountain Rtanj, site of dramatic landscape in South-East Serbia, fruitful with myths and legends since ancient times, is the place where the architecture of the new hotel was to be built on. Small, almost abandoned mining settlement in the vicinity was, together with a few roads, the only trace of long forgotten construction activity. Everything else is nature. It is powerfully manifested through geological morphology over which man, amazed by the tectonically originated three-sided pyramid of mountain Rtanj, wove a narrative of legends and myths.
Same forces, tectonic and climatic, which thus transformed the landscape, are imagined, transcended and presented by architects of this project through spatial articulation and coordination of artificial forms. With such intents, this architecture can be contemplated as a tension diagram of the juxtaposition between the massive, rigid, transfigured geo-morphology, and the liberated faceted structure of the roof surface. Coordination, almost symphonically dramatized, led to the composition of volumes that do not imitate rock formations from the surrounding nature, but have an evident identical - tectonic genetic impulse.
Everything else rose out from this kind of identity. The guest’s comfort, pleasantness, delight, is incarnated from the articulation of spatial clusters between noted juxtaposed forces. Fluid change of views, motion through indoor and outdoor spaces, content richness, tactile quality of traditional materials, ubiquitous water, ambiance of bio-pool, complement the initial authenticity, not particularly architectonic, but the necessary overall authenticity of possible living in such a space, or with it.
Relacija arhitekture i konteksta je drevna koliko i prvo umeće čoveka da sagradi sklonište. Nekada se kontekst bira, nekada je nametnut. Geološki, morfološki, građeni ili prirodni, istorijski, sociološki, labilan ili stabilan, uvek promenjiv, nikad jednostavan, kontekst je uvek osnovno gradivo, osnovna materija arhitekture. Mera prepoznavanja konteksta je verovatno jedna od najvažnijih mera kojima se služe arhitekti, bilo da mu okreću leđa, pružaju ruku, ili ga ne uznemiravaju svojevrsnom igrom mimezisa. U stvari, mi odmeravamo kakav ćemo trag ostaviti na datoj sredini, stvorivši novi kontekst, kompleksni kontekst življenja.
Planina Rtanj, lokacija u jugoistočnoj Srbiji koja je od antičkih vremena bremenita mitovima i legendama, je mesto na kome je trebalo sagraditi arhitekturu novog hotela. Malo, skoro napušteno rudarsko naselje u neposrednoj blizini je, uz puteve, jedini trag gradnje. Sve ostalo je priroda. Ona se moćno manifestuje geološkom morfologijom, nad kojom je čovek, začuđen tektonski nastalom trostranom piramidom Rtnja, ispleo narativ predanja i legendi.
Arhitekti su ovde pokušali da iste sile, koje su tako transformisale pejsaž, tektonske i klimatske, učine vidljivim i u prostornoj artikulaciji građevine. Po takvom nastojanju, ova arhitektura je dijagram sila nastalih u jukstapoziciji masivne, rigidne transfiguracije reljefa, i oslobođene strukture krovne fazetirane površine. Koordinacija, gotovo simfonijski dramatizovana, dovela je do kompozicije volumena koji ne podražavaju stenske formacije iz okolne prirode, ali im je evidentan identičan tektonski genetski impuls.
Sve ostalo je proizašlo iz ovakvog identiteta. Boravak gosta, njegova uljuljkanost, udobnost, prijatnost, rođena je iz artikulacije prostonih celina i njihove vezanosti sa prirodom. Promena vizura prilikom fluidnog kretanja „zatvorenim“ i „otvorenim“, spoljnim prostorima, sadržaji, taktilnost tradicionalnih materijala, sveprisutna voda, ambijent bio-bazena, dopunjuju inicijalnu autentičnost, ne partikularno arhitektonsku, nego nužnu sveukupnu autentičnost mogućeg življenja u ovakom prostoru, ili sa njim.