Nautical Museum Takes Prize in Architectural Competition
October 5, 2012

Nautical Museum Takes Prize in Architectural Competition

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY – Nikola Rubic, a graduate of the University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden, Germany, has won an Apple MacBook Pro in the 2012 Spring ArchitectsJURY competition. His CG entry, the Nautical Museum of Split, was chosen by his peers in a global, online competition.

Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered on the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian, its bay, and port. With a population of 178,192 and a metropolitan area totaling up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and the second largest city in Croatia.

The nautical museum in Split is under-represented, although the harbor influenced the city to a great degree. Today, Split is one of the largest harbor cities on the Mediterranean Sea. With the reorganization of the harbor district under way, it could also generate new possibilities for better connections between the historical city center and traffic connectivity for citizens and tourists alike.

“It was important for me to create a new, representative, and significant nautical museum in the harbor, close to the historical city center and the traffic junction,” said Nikola Rubic. “It was meant to be a connection between those interested in culture, tourists, and railway and ferry transfer passengers,” he continued. 

The museum guest’s path is divided into three parts:  a permanent exhibition, and a shorter, temporary exhibition, with an optional walk through an outside area. Generally, every walk has visual connections to the other exhibitions, the foyer, the café, the marine library, and the harbor. The first exhibition items can already be found in the foyer. Guests can reach the starting point of the exhibition by elevator. Visitors walk through the exhibition on ramps until the end on the ground floor.

The museum includes a marine library, auditorium, and a café area that has a separate entrance if the museum is closed. The secondary functions are accessible by stairs and are differentiated from the primary functions in that they are accessible via ramps.

When asked about his modeling software of choice, Nikola said, “ArchiCAD allowed me to ‘walk through’ the building to see what it would look like if it was built.  One click of the mouse was all it took to see different views and sections, so I had much more time to work on the design concept itself.” Graphisoft’s ArchiCAD is one of the first BIM software offerings for architectures.

A native of Wiesbaden, Nikola Rubic graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden with a degree in architectural engineering.  After completing internships in Budenheim and Frankfurt am Main, Nikola was hired by Angela Fritsch Architekten in Darmstadt where he is currently a member of the competitions team.

The ArchitectsJURY competition is aimed at finding the best architectural student work, as judged by visitors to www.ArchitectsJURY.com, the student architecture community.