Pierre-Alain Croset, Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi, Luca Capacci
with Yi Xing (Sean) Chow, Erika Sezzi, Alberto Geuna, Amir Adelfar, and Maria Chiara Giangregorio
Politecnico di Milano, DAStU Department of Architecture and Urban Studies
This two-part report presents the outcomes of the 2024 Architectural Design Studio at Politecnico di Milano. The studio invited international students to engage with the island of Uljanik in Pula, Croatia, and develop a "vertical social condenser" for the port city.
Part 1 focuses on the research and design process: site visits, local engagement, workshops, and preliminary urban analysis that informed the students’ vision for Uljanik’s future. Part 2 presents the resulting student projects and highlights their diverse strategies to foster the city’s productive heritage toward a forward-thinking, sustainable future.
Projects and Exhibition in Pula
In May 2025, we opened the exhibition showcasing a selection of the best student projects, aiming to engage the local community and authorities with new perspectives and future scenarios for Uljanik. The exhibition was held at the DAI-SAI Gallery in Pula between May 6 and June 2025 and received local media coverage (see here and here).
The exhibition centered around the main model of the site, on which students’ projects were displayed. Larger models were placed near the windows to create a direct visual connection with the city outside, while project panels lined the gallery walls.
Fig. 11–16 Exhibition in Pula, DAI-SAI Gallery, May 2025, Photo by Manuel Angelini, Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi, and Pierre Alain Croset
Students’ proposals offered complex and varied approaches and relationships to the site. Some projects were directly connected with the existing warehouses or reinterpreted the productive machines; others reused the megastructural ramps used for launching finished boats; and some designed new public spaces linked to both the waterfront and the warehouse. Importantly, all projects shared a commitment to respecting the site, seeking not to abandon its productive legacy but to reinterpret and enhance it through sustainable and feasible design.
Vertical Landmarks
Several projects were designed as vertical landmarks that visually connect the urban hillscape with the natural seascape.
LIGHTSTONE, by Juan David Daza Galindo and Daniela Zalamea, is a reinterpretation of the lighthouse characterized by the heaviness of stacked volumes, one on top of the other, that contrasts with the lightness of the water and the horizontality of the sea. The tower appears as a pile of rocks, while the gaps between the volumes frame views towards the sea, the riva, the Arena, and the cranes. The building is situated on the largest ramp used for launching boats, offering sea views at the atrium entrance, compressed by the volumes above.
NEXUS, by Teodora Misirkic and Nils van der Velden, builds a network of relationships within its architectural and urban context. Playing with three geometric forms—a triangle, a hexagon, and a rectangle—the tower fuses the symbolism of three moving cranes in the port with the silhouette of a castle in the old city center. Each volume is tied to a specific function and is oriented toward one of three directions—the nature of Muzil, the historical part of the city, or the Uljanik shipyard itself. Conceived as a social condenser, the building offers users access to a variety of programs—cultural, educational, sports, and residential.
PULA BAYWATCH, by Elia Villa Aliberti and Ojus Jitendra Patil, draws inspiration from the old Uljanik yard to imagine a vertical community where maritime history, active lifestyles, and cultural exchange coexist. Its overlapping volumes open up direct relations with the waterfronts and house a maritime workshops & sailing school.
Vertical Flows and Complexity
Other projects proposed a complex circulation interaction between the internal functions and the external productive landscape.
HORIZON NEXUS, by Melisa Galeano G and Ksenija Todorović, offers a vertical integration of culture, learning, wellness, and living. The project features a peripheral vertical circulation that redefines the building’s voids as thresholds, acting as transitions between internal spaces and functions. These voids host diverse programs based on their connections, serving different purposes and creating visual relationships with the surrounding landscape.
STACKED CITY, by Yujie Han and Weiqing Yan, establishes a connection between a horizontal platform, linked to existing operational warehouses, and a vertical system that hybridizes multiple urban functions. The project promotes a new focus on both horizontal heritage and vertical progress.
SLIP, by Anastasiia Pavlovska and Maria Gabriela Castro, is positioned above the original slipway used for assembling and launching ships into the water. It is envisioned as a ship under construction with boat modules arranged around three circulatory cores. This combination of shifting volumes and pathways encourages interaction and exploration, reflecting the diverse social fabric of a vertical city.
Horizontal Verticality
Projects with a more horizontal development aimed for direct interaction with the productive environment, emphasizing a future scenario in which the island’s industrial identity is preserved and revitalized.
THE MOST, by Alice Audero, Jaione Aramburu, and Ana Villena, proposes a transformation that integrates new, dynamic uses into the existing landscape. The project is positioned at the entrance of the island, serving as a symbolic and physical bridge between the city’s past and future. Conceptually, it operates as a vertical city: a fragment of Pula rising vertically to host the life, energy, and diversity of the urban environment, maintaining a respectful and integrated relationship with its surroundings.
SOCIAL ASSEMBLY, by Federico Condotta and Bartlomiej Leszek Glomski, draws inspiration from the gradual construction of large structures observed by generations of Pula residents. The project forms a vertical campus composed of three main elements—solids, voids, and connections—symbolically representing the heart of shipbuilding efforts.
HORIZON•TALL, by Greta Mirizzi and Hannah Novotny, is a horizontal skyscraper inspired by the traditional cranes and piers that have dotted the island skyline for centuries. This building hosts hands-on educational programs, ensuring that future generations continue to learn the craft of shipbuilding. The iconic constructivist suspended floating volumes define a new landmark in dialogue with the productive contexts—a new community suspended in the sky.
Conclusion
The students’ projects demonstrate that the idea of a “vertical city” is coherent with Pula’s urban environment, where existing vertical cranes and topography already shape the evolving relationship between the waterfront and the city. If Pula is seeking a renewed identity, these proposals aim to reshape the city’s productive heritage toward a forward-thinking, sustainable future defined by hope and the vertical layering of urban productive functions. Pula emerges as a complex, three-dimensional archipelago of both vertical elements and horizontal presences. It is now ready to embrace a new role as an ecologically productive port city open to global dialogue.
Acknowledgements
This blog post has been written in the context of discussions in the LDE PortCityFutures research community. It reflects the evolving thoughts of the authors and expresses the discussions between researchers on the socio-economic, spatial and cultural questions surrounding port city relationships. This blog was edited by the PortCityFutures editorial team: Yi Kwan Chan and Wenjun Fung.