IN OSIJEK, CROATIA, PRESENTATION OF STUDENTS' WORK

A very interesting outcome whose initiative was launched in Bizovac during the 50th Brođanci Ancient Sports Olympiad. After the panel discussion, Srećko Vuković, mayor of the Municipality of Bizovac and vice-president of the Croatian Traditional Games and Sports Association, expressed interest in the reconstruction of the Brođanci stadium as a “Center for Traditional Games and Sports.”
This prompted Professor Dr. Jasenka Kranjčević, scientific advisor of the Institute of Tourism in Zagreb, as a lecturer in the Rural Planning course at the Faculty of Architecture of the J. J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, to ask the students an interesting question: how to organize a space for performing traditional sports and games within the entire village.
At the beginning of the semester, the students visited the village of Brođanci (8.10.2024) and, during a conversation with the mayor of the municipality of Bizovac, Srećko Vuković, they discussed in depth the challenges of the development of the village and the desire to develop/modernize the space in which the Old Sports Olympics, a unique event with a 50-year tradition, is held. There, most of the architecture students met TSI for the first time and got to know it through the information process. The students were divided into 15 groups, each of which proposed their own solutions, with which, in addition to considering the spatial aspect of the village (demographics, traffic, agriculture, economy, etc.), they related the Sports and Traditional Games to the local tangible and intangible cultural heritage and local traditional building. The exercises were led by prof. dr.sc. Dina Stober and assistant Nikolina Raguž-Lučić.
46 students expressed interest and presented their projects and ideas at the presentation, offering innovative and modern solutions-proposing heritage activation. In their papers, the students of Architecture and Urban Planning, confirmed that traditional sports and games require a multi-level interdisciplinary approach to their safeguarding, presentation and modernization. Traditional sports and games, in addition to representing the specific cultural heritage of a certain area that can become a first-class tourist attraction, require the education and active involvement of various experts, including architects and the involvement of the local community.
The submitted works will be published in digital and printed form and made available to the public.

We would like to thank Milivoj Pacenti, President Hrvatski Savez Tradicijskih Igara I Sportova, for this information and photos.
Hrvatski Savez Tradicijskih Igara I Sportova is a Traditional Sports Partner.