Preface: Conceptual Design Premise
The name Pangea represents a geological hypothesis regarding the earliest stage of the earth’s development when the land mass of the earth was a single, unified form.

According to the theory, that single land mass subsequently divided over millennia leaving the piecemeal results we encounter today as separate continents.

One can observe the resulting pieces, the Pangea-derived continents, like a puzzle that has been taken apart, and observe how those pieces once joined together as a whole, because the edges of one reciprocate the edges of its opposite.

The Congress Hall concept design, with reference to the Pangea analogy, originates with a cylindrical form which is then broken into parts/volumes as the project program and organization require, leaving a clear residual form language that associates the separate parts with an a priori conceptual whole to which, in theory, the parts could return.

Likewise, the four new buildings located on the four project sites, share a subtly variable design vocabulary that suggests a consistency of form, shape, and space, notwithstanding the clear organizational and programmatic project contents that necessitate substantial difference in form, shape, and space from building to building.

Design homogeneity and heterogeneity.

Pangea before.

Pangea after.

Both.

The Trebinje Arts Park
A 1000 meter long Civic, Art, and Culture Pedestrian Promenade, running east/west, conducts concert goers, workers, residents, and visitors to five project venues – the Hotel, The Congress Center, the Sports Complex, the Administrative Center, and to the park itself.

The governing conceptual design strategy for the entire site provides both a unique project concept and presence for each of the four buildings, and simultaneously unifies the four projects within a clear and consistent landscape organization.

Each of the four new building projects, roughly equidistant from one another, sits in a reflective pool of water.  In the midst of each pool is a public plaza and building lobby, an extension of the east west promenade.

Bridging above each plaza and entry lobby, in the spirit of the three historic bridges of Trebinje, the new structures are located in the air.

The Congress Building lobby is a discrete building venue, physically connected to the theatres above with four structural support towers that include multiple escalators, elevators, and stairs.

The theatres are organized in plan along a broad and engaging pedestrian concourse level, sometimes open to the sky and to city views, that welcomes visitors to each of the three primary theatres. A secondary concourse provides access to private offices, rehearsal and lecture halls, and meeting, exhibit, and conference spaces.

With respect for Trebinje’s historic building traditions, the Congress Hall is finished with large slabs of red sandstone, wrapped around the three theatres, and acknowledging the long tradition of color and material – red tile roofs and masonry and stone construction – which characterizes so much of Trebinje’s built history.