Mediterranean Modernism
Another aspect which we felt strongly about was the design of our hotel. We understood that form, tectonics, colour, and haptics all have crucial impact on how places are perceived, experienced, enjoyed and finally, remembered.
Bearing this in mind we stepped slightly away from the global trends in hospitality and found inspiration in the Mediterranean’s long relationship with high Modernism.
More specifically we were thinking of designs for family villas and hotels built in and around the city of Dubrovnik during the 1930s by a renown local architect of the early modernist period Nikola Dobrović.
His highly functionalist architecture interprets the characteristics of Dubrovnik’s fortifications and its cultivated stone landscape in a contemporary way. Apart from cherishing the principles of new architecture, we also valued in Dobrović’s oeuvre the timeless interest in form, materiality, space, and location.
These were the aspects we wanted to see underlined in the design for Osmoliš; modern but untouched by trends, devoid of excess artificiality and stereotypical tropes of luxury, with strong focus on connection with the land, community and history.
Drawing from these premises, architect Damir Vitković envisaged a modernist concrete structure with distinct brise-soleils, reclusive, protected room modules and a heavy console of the large canopy immersed in greenery, offfering stunning views of the sea.
The hotel's public spaces, located on the “floating", glazed ground floor level, are charcterised by open plans and visual interweaving with the lush vegetation of the surrounding slopes