The complex of the future heritage museum will as a cultural center consist of the renovated and reconstructed St. Mark’s Church and the newly planned museum building. The shaping of the afore mentioned complex it is intended to give the Hvar Heritage Museum a space that treats with equal importance both past and present. The historic architectural heritage of St. Mark’s Church is valued with the most prominent elements, and the new building is not only providing a most necessary space for the Museum content, but it will also become another monument in Hvar’s already rich heritage.After the necessary sanation and restauration, St. Mark’s church is envisioned not only as a monument, but also as a live space, multifunctional and connected. With a new iron construction it mimics the traditional 3 part ship divison (heritage elements), but the space itself is shaped as one volume so that it would fit perfectly the needs of the museum – collection, temporary installations, exhibition, lectures, concerts, multimedia presentations… In order to maximize the exhibition space, the lateral elements are used for gallery space, which are connected by a bridge. The church is connected by the northern wall walkway with the collection space in order to achieve a unique exhibition area that creates a warm bond between both buildings. The newly designed alley between the buildings extends around the church all the way to the bell tower which would be converted into a lookout. The new museum building is separated from St. Mark’s church with the newly designed alley in order to preserve the character of the original church volume. The new alley is interpreted as part of the town’s urbanistic heritage, it becomes a dividing line between the new and the old, and functionally it allows the availability to the museum content. The existing entrance grass area becomes a stone tiled square, as a logical extension of the street grid in order to allow a bigger visual encompassing of the whole complex as well as the creation of a entrance area to the museum and church, a place of gathering and happenings. The museum building consists of the ground, first and second floors and includes contents the gallery of museum’s collection, to the gallery for modern and contemporary art, multifunctional halls, various facilites for staff (workshops, arhvie, collections, offices…) and assisting spaces. The slanted roof, landscaped with indigenous greenery, self sufficient plants and its own configuration tries to bring back the spatial memory of old cascading fields from times past.
