The Youth Centre, The First Users Will Move In At the Beginning of the Year

It will be the centre of future public and social life and events, which will revive the until recently derelict space that gaped empty since the wartime of the 1990s.

It is an area of almost 4,500 m2, of which over a thousand will belong to the Zadar City Library, and the rest to the Youth Centre. The Library will settle in the part to the left of the main entrance, and the rest will be available to the Centre, on whose management model is currently being worked.

According to the project, a two-storey space of 4,500 m2 is being reconstructed, which is located next to the existing City Library and which will be connected by a passage. The newly renovated spaces are adapted to the needs of youth associations, independent cultural scene and citizens who are users of the Library space, as well as public spaces. Thus, the arrangement provides multifunctional spaces with playrooms for younger children, as well as spaces for workshops for primary school children, an exercise room, lecture halls, a large multimedia hall for concerts, screenings and various other performance activities, dance halls, coffee bar and administration space and an office for associations.

Therefore, the new urban solution should offer the full function of the urban complex of the former barracks with a solution to key spatial constraints, such as pedestrian and traffic communications, utilities, lighting and green areas, stationary traffic, new public areas and the like, all with the aim of lasting and meaningful regeneration of the space of the former barracks, and its integration into the urban matrix of the city.

Let us also point out some important facts, namely that the project is co-financed from the Call for Proposals in the process of direct award of grants for a strategic project under Specific Objective 6e2 "Reconstruction of Brownfield Sites (former military and / or industrial areas) within the ITU programme" Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020." Of the total amount mentioned, 33,150,000.00 are grants.

The final completion of all works is certainly awaited by numerous associations, but also other potential facility users of this Centre.

“99 percent of the work is finished, tests are being done, a technical inspection is reported and we expect that a technical inspection will be scheduled next month. After a successful technical inspection, a use permit is issued for the 1st phase of the Youth Centre project worth 40 million kuna”, we learned from Ante Ćurković, the Acting Head of the Administrative Department for EU Funds of the City of Zadar.

After the completion of the construction works, landscaping works will follow.

“What awaits us is the 2nd Phase of the Youth Centre, i.e., the landscape, financing and execution of works next to the Centre, for which about five million kuna (approx. €600,000) has been provided. All landscaping works should be completed by the end of this year and after that we are ready for the first users to enter the building of the Youth Centre”, Ćurkovic announced.

The project includes arranging and equipping the building in which the Zadar Centre for Contemporary Culture, Arts and Youth will be established.

Through the ZadrugArt project, the City of Zadar, together with the Centre for Independent Culture, opened the issue of introducing a model of participatory management of the Centre. The establishment of the Centre includes not only physical space, but it envisions the development of new projects to strengthen the capacity and potential of the civil sector, as well as better cooperation between the civil and public sectors.