Petrified dreams - Proto-Arch

The architectural urban and artistic solution of the memorial called ” PETRIFIED DREAMS ” consists of fifteen personalized verticals that are located in the planned part of the Gruž harbor and correspond to the existing vertical of the bell tower of the Dominican monastery in Gruž from the 15th century, without disturbing its dominance and role as a kind of spatial landmark. With their elongated appearance in space, they blend in with the existing ambience and permanently remind us of past events that are an indelible trace of the collective memory of the City. The moment of torn childhood asks too difficult questions and seeks non-existent answers, at the same time crying out for inner peace and a renewed meaning in life.

Fifteen personalized verticals show fragments of the CHILDREN’S DREAMS of the victimized child, which we learned about through the project materials. On the monolithic verticals, perforations and applications are read on the flat, thinned sculptural mass that symbolically strives towards the Sky. The structures of the celestial expanse are integrated through the perforated volume of the monolith. With such a formative act, dreams become reality, bringing them to life in a MEETING with family, friends, visitors and children who will identify with Đuro, Luka, Marija, Andrea, Nikolina, Hrvoje, Katarina, Roman, Šima, Dolores, Vlaho, Tonći, Maris, Mara or Miha. By interpreting relief surfaces and marked colored areas that associatively refer to the football field, school board, birthday parties and other aspirations, PETRIFIED DREAMS will come to life through other children and become reality.

Life does not stop, imagination does not disappear, it changes in an instant – with the transition, the perishable passes into the eternal, and the limited into the perfect.
The work moves away from mimetics and with its visual language encourages the observer to contemplate and plunge into the world of children’s imagination and the true joy of life. It penetrates into intimacy, longings, memories of loved ones, the warmth of embraces and an unbreakable bond that, despite the passage of time, does not diminish because love knows no boundaries, it binds us with strong bonds that erase the boundaries of worlds. Fragments of CHILDREN’S DREAMS rise to a monolithic pedestal and celebrate life with the fullness of children’s imagination and playfulness. Although individual, children’s dreams are universal and tangible enough that every child can identify with the lives of individuals whose dreams are interrupted in a moment, but by moving into ETERNITY they achieve their perfect existence.

The dimensions of the vertical monoliths speak in semantic terms about the theme of FORGIVENESS that runs through the offered project materials (the film “From That Day”), 70×7, as an act of liberation and healing and the only correct path to inner peace.
»Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother if he sins against me? Up to seven times? ” Jesus said to him: “I do not tell you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Mt 18:21-35)
The planned dimensions of the verticals are 70×7 (70cm/7m/25cm).
In the ground floor, the verticals are connected in shape and construction to monolithic strips that form a unique urban composition in the space, while at the junction of the strips and verticals there is a plaque with the information of the victim child.
The verticals are made of reinforced concrete, while the foundations are planned on an L-shaped foundation strip.
The concrete vertical is sanded and finely processed as a matte smooth surface.
The planned landscape solution includes retaining olive trees (Olea europea L.), i.e. their redistribution on the perimeter line, forming an avenue of trees towards the roadway, thus forming a kind of visual and sound barrier, while at the same time not obscuring the view of the verticals of the memorial from passersby. The rest of the ground floor solution is a grassy area.