Public toilet
Fabijanić sees his long and narrow lavatory building (1.7x12x48 m) as a wall that is almost as thick as the old city walls. Yet he contrasts those vertical, rough-hewn 14th century walls with the slightly slanted, sanded dolite facings which makes his wall look like a cut jewel. Fabijanić models his “Wall” like a sculptor; he shapes it from outside and from inside enveloping a residence of form (Focillon). Inside, the wall has been scooped out to receive toilet facilities, and outside it opens in layers of stone with a striking similarity to the Egyptian temple pylon. This is exactly what reveals the “hidden yet aesthetically elaborate movement towards the quality of monumentality in small structures”. In designing this public space, Fabijanić observes the Ragusan motto Obliti privatorum publica curate and continues the long tradition of Onofrio de la Cava with his 1438 water supply system and his Great Fountain and Small Fountain, as well as of an older Gothic fountain in the Rector's Palace. In the niches formed by the layers of stone, he places his “fountains” of drinking water, offering refreshment from long strolls in the strong Ragusan sun. Leaning on the Harbour Master's Office, the toilet-wall seems to invite visitors to take a stroll by the city walls and perhaps use its facilities. Like a fragment of a polygonal bastion, its sharp Cubist edge has been softened by a sculptural recession, a stroke of wit which triggers a number of associations with sitting. It is yet another idiosyncrasy of Fabijanić's interpretation of traditional Ragusan ornaments in stone, such as those adorning the fountains.
Fabijanić has more mottoes in stock: In a stone town, build with stone. But not any stone. From the outside “the nudity of the solid” (Focillon) has been covered by layers of sanded indigenous Dalmatian dolite, a stone which paves Stradun. It also covers a part of the floor area around the building, whereas the interior walls and floor are covered in a highly polished Angola Black marble. When treated, this material loses its natural quality and becomes soft and supple, assuming a shape of its own. Hence the discrepancy between the practically natural stone of the city walls and that of Fabijanić's “Wall”. The material departs from chaos; gains its own skin, space and light, and the transformation is completed. Indeed, a transformation has taken place here, and the stone thus treated has created its own, specific space.
Volumes change their state, depending on the light that shapes them, which underlines protuberances and recesses. In turn, light depends on the material which receives it; it glides over a surface or remains fixed on it. This is best illustrated in the different treatment of the city walls and the toilet wall when illuminated by the passage floor lightning in the evening.
Fabijanić has successfully met high standards set by him at the outset in this design for public toilets. His “Wall” places him in the continuum of Ragusan architecture, and yet his idiosyncratic approach to the historical environment gives a modern interpretation of the showcase entrance into the City.
