Marija Barović, a researcher at the University of Zagreb, presents a lecture at FAUP discussing the development of the sardine-canning industry in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Croatia and its impact on ecological systems.

The session, organized as part of the Fishing Architecture project, which is being coordinated by researcher André Tavares and conducted at the Center for Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, will focus on the results of the research project “Adriatic Spatial Ecologies”.

In the late nineteenth century, the emergence of a sardine-canning industry transformed the social and urban structure of settlements on the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Conceived as an architectural type, these production facilities were modified according to the political, social, and economic transitions of twentieth-century Croatia, while also adjusting to the evolving ecological systems in a show of remarkable adaptability and flexibility.

Following the traces of the so-called “Adriatic Spatial Ecologies”, this lecture will examine the history of the fish-processing industry around the Adriatic region, seeking to determine the factors and actors involved in this process—whether tangible or intangible, human or environmental—while at the same time recognizing the impact of these architectures on natural and built systems.

Marija Barović is a PhD student and research and teaching assistant in the Department of History and Theory of Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Zagreb. She earned her degree in architecture from the University of Zagreb in 2015. During her master's studies, she attended the École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-La Villette. In 2022, she completed a Master in Design Studies in History and Philosophy of Design and Media, at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Her academic research focuses on the epistemologies of space, exploring how professional knowledge, cultural forces, and common aspirations affect the process of defining and producing forms. Currently, she is conducting a study on modern architecture and its imagery based on the relationships between built environments and ecosystems, with a focus on the sardine-canning industry.