As a fortified medieval city, Dubrovnik was the centre of the Republic of Dubrovnik, one of the smallest states in the Mediterranean whose importance far surpassed its size. Just like in many other Croatian historic cities, its industrial heritage has remained in the shadow of the historic city, not properly acknowledged as an important segment of the city’s history. This dichotomy inspired this research, whose focus was the cradle of industrial development—Gruž Bay. The research focused on archival sources, published and unpublished materials and a field study. The systematic integration of collected materials was upgraded with an analytical study, the valorisation, contextualisation and, finally, contemporary presentation. Gruž Bay was once an idyllic landscape with few Renaissance summer villas. The original matrix was overlayed with pre-industrial and industrial complexes: shipyards, a harbour, a railway, industrial and infrastructural complexes. At the turn of the 19th century, they were slowly gaining momentum, which was suddenly interrupted by nearby political turmoil, and ultimately a war. Since then, tourism has prevailed, and the industrial complexes have gradually become redundant. The affirmation of the value of the industrial heritage and its potential for reuse would contribute to the further development of this well-known UNESCO site.

Omiš is characterised by an exceptional layering of its natural environment and historical architecture, which is why its modern achievements have not been fully researched so far. The aim of this scientific paper is a more comprehensive study of the modern architecture of Omiš of the second half of the 20th century. Its architectural corpus has remained in the shadow of modern architectural realisations of the nearby city of Split, which belongs to the same prominent protagonists of modernity. Work methods in this paper have included the analysis of primary and secondary sources and research of the current situation in the field. This work, for the first time, gives a systematic presentation of the modern architecture of this picturesque town while the elements of the author’s expression integrate features of modern architecture and reinterpret the tradition of life in the Mediterranean.

BACKGROUND: Industrial complexes and technical culture complexes are significant morphological elements of the city.AIM: This paper focuses on the two European towns and showcases: Bilbao in Spain and Zagreb in Croatia.MATERIAL AND METHODS: The extravagant project of Gehry’s started the reformation of the Bilbao with growth of tourism and profit in general. Beside the urban regeneration, it started the trend of star-architects building their masterpieces one next to another along the river Nervion. This paper focuses on two complexes of technical culture buildings in Zagreb, presenting early conversion versus still unsolved regeneration.RESULTS: Former industrial city of Bilbao is nowadays a symbol of contemporary architecture featured by Guggenheim Museum and designed by Frank Ghery. It featured urban regeneration and numerous other examples of the contemporary architecture. This paper focuses as well on conversion of former wine-storage for mixed-use complex designed by Philippe Starck. The initial idea of the project was to revive the dying neighborhood because of the gentrification caused by the Guggenheim Museum. Zagreb intensive development in recent 150 years is based on industrialization process. After intensive deindustrialization, regeneration of redundant industrial complexes and technical culture buildings is segmented. Although the most prominent regenerations are significant architectural achievements winning the most prominent architectural awards, numerous complexes are awaiting for the conversions. Many of them are left to decay, or were demolished promptly, offering attractive location for new buildings that have been raised. This paper focuses on two complexes of technical culture buildings in Zagreb, presenting early conversion versus still unsolved regeneration. The first one is the avant-garde example of conversion of Tannery building for the Glypthotek of Yugoslav, i.e. Croatian Academy of Science and Art. The other example is Zagreb Fair, which realization since 1955 has initialized urbanization of late modern New Zagreb. Decay of Fair function, led to provisory or designed conversion of pavilions for new purposes, but the integral regeneration still is still missing.CONCLUSION:Urban regeneration should be considered seriously, and lead to transformation to contemporary city of 21st century.

Based on the urban planning historical and comparative method, the paper gives a concise overview of the urban genesis of Ploče, a new port-industrial town, built in the 1945–⁠1990 period. As the youngest town on the Croatian part of the Adriatic coast, it developed after the demanding and extensive works on the regulation of the Neretva River and the construction of the Sarajevo-Ploče railway line to meet the needs of the port. Within the framework of social planning and on the basis of urban development plans, which involved mostly Croatian urban planners, a new town was soon built on a previously undeveloped rocky and swampy area. 80 years after the idea of a new town, the urban planning of Ploče undoubtedly represents the urban heritage of Modernism. The specific spatial identity can be presented for the needs of tourism and used for sustainable development planning.

Ploče is the only town in Croatia that was planned and built on the Adriatic coast as a result of social planning after World War II. As a planned port-industrial town, Ploče has been neglected in architectural research by experts and the wider public. Therefore, the subject of this research is the unexplored modern public architecture (built 1952-1970) that contributed to the transformation from a port-industrial town to a town with increasingly urban characteristics. The work is based on the research of scarce primary archival material, field research and comparison of public buildings of the same purpose built in Croatia in the same or similar time period. As Ploče has become increasingly urban over time, green areas have been analysed and arranged as one of the indicators of urbanity. Research and valorisation of the contemporary public architecture of Ploče has shown that it represents a piece of valuable Croatian architectural heritage, which has been neglected until now.

Duhanska stanica jedan je od najznačajnijih primjera industrijskog naslijeđa na području Metkovića. Inicijalno je izgrađena početkom 20. st., a sustavno se dograđuje nakon Drugoga svjetskog rata. Nakon gašenja izvorne funkcije koncem 1990-ih godina preventivno je zaštićena te istovremeno, paradoksalno, dijelom devastirana. Početkom 21. st. upravno-administrativna zgrada prenamijenjena je u Prirodoslovni muzej i Gradsku knjižnicu. Velebna struktura anticipirala je urbanizaciju Metkovića tijekom 20. st., a njena recentna prenamjena inicira urbanu regeneraciju 21. stoljeća.