Superior architecture is artistic intelligence – a place where the endless breadth of imagination touches and defines the space of reality. Only true artists manage to bridge the impersonal river of mediocrity that flows between them.
Marko Katnic and his A team don’t like compromises. They affect the change of the environment in which we live and therefore they consider that they have a responsibility to try to use the attitudes that the entire community has towards that same environment: social and spatial.
What would Marko change?
He would change the way in which the uncompromising profit orientation of individual investors affects the devastation of our territory, the urban context of living and the development of cities. The amount of money is not the most important indicator of the success of a business but the refined sense of measure. The balance between the desire to achieve the best possible business results and the need to take care of the space and society in which we live are not only a measure of success – but also of humanity.
He would change the attitude of a good part of the business sphere to the forces that are coming. Young people should be given a chance on time. While in college, they need to feel a real work atmosphere and be given the opportunity to develop their potential. Marko is both, an architect and an educator, always ready to encourage his students to throw themselves into the fire of real business challenges. His students are constantly part of the business environment in which he creates. In modern education, there is no division into theoretical and practical teaching. Whenever they work on concrete design solutions, all members of the A team think in accordance with the thesis that there is nothing more practical than theory. You cannot create something out of nothing. New and original ideas rest on previously well-laid grounds. Complete modernity emerges from tradition. All you have to do is to look at their functional contemporary architectural bouquets bathed in Mediterranean spirit in solutions for the Waddington villa or for residential apartment projects in Stoliv or Tivat to feel all the power of this belief…
Marko and A team would also change the way members of professional associations in many areas of the creative industries relate to business and social realities. The professional community must take a firmer stance and fight for itself, for the society in which it lives and for the business territory within which it operates, which is increasingly narrowing every day. There is a need for community and a voice against negative phenomena to drive development in the cultural and creative industries and for things to change for the better.
What neither Marko nor his colleagues would change and what they would like to preserve at all costs are our rich and diverse architectural heritage and the increasing number of exhibitions, schools, public lectures and discussions in the cultural and creative industries that place utmost importance its protection; both in professional circles and in the general public.
They would not change the significant volume of investments, both domestic and foreign, which, while respecting the relevant professional standards, should represent a fertile ground for learning, development, experiment, free expression of creativity and further progress.
And what Marko will point out to you as the most important thing he would never want to change is the enthusiasm of young and capable people, who are increasingly becoming part of the profession and who bring in fresh new initiatives, optimism and energy to every new job. Not only would he, as an educator and professional, change his attitude towards these young people, he would tell you with a smile ‘he would not let anyone else touch them’.
That’s probably why he is at the top…