Grožnjan Summer School of Architecture is a product of a tiny budget and great enthusiasm. It is an independent place for learning and research of architecture in the broadest sense. We firmly believe in architecture as a thought, rather than a building. Instead squeezing your pencil or a computer mouse we insist on squeezing your brain.
We think of Grožnjan Summer School of architecture as a place for establishing architectural middle ground
between east and west
between chaos and creation
between rural and urban
between local and global
between rational and intuitive
between history and future
between theory and practice
between wisdom and naivete
between smart and clever
between obstacles and possibilities.
Grožnjan Summer School of Architecture is the place in between.
The idea of starting an international symposium with a workshop arose at the end of the eighties of the last century, inspired primarily by the lack of contemporary theoretical discourse within the local architectural community and the aspiration to internationalize the scene, so the school was established by Croatian architects Vinko Penezić and Krešimir Rogina.
In those first few seasons, since the Internet came to light only a few years later, the symposium (referring to Reyner Banham's famous 1960 book 'Theory and Design in the First Machine Age') was called Theory and Design in the Third Machine Age, and since we are talking about electronic devices, the change of title to Digital Age after the pause caused by the aggression against Croatia was more of a formal than an essential character.
From the first days, and especially with the Whiteley-Price's 'hit' called 'Work games (without borders)', the famous Grožnjan atmosphere of a balance of seriousness and leisure, intense work and relaxing fun, learning and leisure with an emphasis on new knowledge about the fast-changing world in that we live in, since 'there is nothing more traditional than change'.
Little is known that Cedric Price in Grožnjan created the TURTLAN project for Grožnjan, with which he won recognition at the Shinkenchiku competition 'Electronic House' in Tokyo. The project was presented in his book Opera, published by Samantha Hardingham, with a facsimile of the mocking certificate about Price's 'participation' with the signatures of the participants. And not only that - the illustration on the cover is also a representation of the Turtlan project!
List of guests and professors of previous editions includes:
Established by Vinko Penezić and Krešimir Rogina in 1989
This year's edition is organized by Marija Milas, Lucija Nemeth, Anamarija Šimunović,
Matej Varzić, Boris Vidaković (director of GSSA since 2020)
Website and visual identity: Matej Varzić
JMI CENTRE GROŽNJAN
Umberta Gorjana 2, 52429 Grožnjan, Croatia
groznjanschoolofarchitecture@gmail.com