The new commercial and residential Cvjetni building, standing on the Zagreb square of the same name, is a complex and composite operation occupying a large part of a whole block in the old city centre. Underground parking for 400 cars, and a commercial centre with shops and restaurants give the city a go-ahead new meeting point. The residential part consists of 39 apartments on the second and fifth floors, and five penthouses on the sixth and seventh. This is prime accommodation at a nerve-centre of the town. The general layout is an adaptation of the formula found in the historic centre where buildings abut on the street but have an internal courtyard. The residential part of Cvjetni looks inwards onto a hanging garden at second-floor level, framed by three façades of the building. Features here are the offset wall lines, and asymmetry of window apertures and clad surfaces. Designing these façades involved a most careful study of colours and materials, so as to blend with the town-centre colours yet achieve an innovative look - not to mention the need for durability and resistance in a major operation of this kind. The cladding chosen was laminated stoneware using tiles of Cotto d’Este’s Kerlite Buxy Caramel, supplied in the 300x100 cm format, cut on site into 16 different basic shapes which were then applied following the pattern designed by Boris Podrecca. The tiles were stuck onto an aluminium support which in turn was anchored to insulation layers of the wall surface. The climate in these parts can be rigid, night-time temperatures sinking to -15°C, so special precautions had to be taken to ensure a surface temperature of at least +10°C was maintained day and night so that bonding would be effective. The final outcome justified the choice of Kerlite Buxy Caramel: being versatile and easy to work, it lent itself to an unconventional façade idea, while blending perfectly into the Zagreb townscape.
Cotto d’Este Via Emilia Romagna, 31
I - 41049 Sassuolo (MO)
Tel. +39 0536 814911
Fax +39 0536 814918
E-mail:
[email protected]www.cottodeste.itwww.kerlite.it