In order to bridge the gap between less recognized heritage and that which enjoys the highest level of protection, an interdisciplinary educational system is essential, as education helps draw attention to the opportunities for recognizing and activating this type of heritage within Croatian tourism. One neglected type of heritage in tourism includes traditional sports and games, which often take place in open spaces; therefore, addressing spatial planning is crucial if this form of heritage is to be affirmed in tourism.
For this reason, the Institute for Tourism in Zagreb, in collaboration with the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, as part of the Rural Planning course, prepared a spatial planning assignment for the village of Brođanci. The focus was on designing spaces for traditional sports and games, specifically the “Olympics of Old Sports.”
Third-year architecture students, after conducting site visits, becoming familiar with the location, traditional sports and games, and engaging in discussions with the Mayor of Bizovac Municipality, Srećko Vuković, proposed innovative spatial-architectural solutions.
As a result of the joint collaboration between the two scientific institutions and the students—under the implementation of the internal scientific project Activating Cultural Heritage in Croatian Tourism—a bilingual (Croatian-English) e-publication (i.e., textbook) entitled Ruralno planiranje i aktiviranje kulturne baštine / Rural Planning and Activating Cultural Heritage was created, presenting the best student projects.
The publication’s editors are: Associate Professor Jasenka Kranjčević, Professor Dina Stober, and Nikolina Raguž Lučić, M.Arch.
You can download the publication here.
The publication was funded through the project Activating Cultural Heritage in Croatian Tourism – AKULTUR.