Tesla spent his high school years in Karlovac.
The renovation of a dilapidated building near the Karlovac high school and its transformation into the Nikola Tesla – Karlovac Experience Centre is underway. The works will cost some 15 million kuna, reports Lokalni.hr on October 15, 2018.
Following an assignment received from the Town of Karlovac and Karlovac County, the concept and visual identity of the centre has been developed by two companies from Zagreb, Pop-Art and Real Group, which was also involved in the organisation of a large exhibition held about Tesla, “Mind from the Future”.
The project was presented at the Karlovac high school, which gave Tesla the only formal education of his life. “We started from the idea that Tesla was marked by Karlovac; by his schooling and living along the Korana river, along the water, where he almost drowned once and where he got new ideas about how to tame nature, water, lightning. That is why we have designed this house as a multifunctional venue, full of new technology, with space which is separated from the arboretum and the high school by glass surfaces and which is designed for young people and the development of science,” said Alen Ranilović, the managing director of Real Group.
The dilapidated house will be renovated, but also expanded with a new area where the story about the life of Nikola Tesla will be told on three floors: from Smiljan in the Lika region where he was born, through Gospić and Karlovac where he lived, to New York where he spent most of his life. The exhibition will also include the 150-year-old instruments he worked on during his time attending the Karlovac high school.
The centre will also feature a classroom, a multifunctional hall, a coffee shop where visitors will be able to use high-tech replicators to order drinks, an amphitheatre, a nine-metre-long art installation that will honour different Tesla’s ideas, exhibition halls, and many more facilities that will testify about Tesla’s genius and motivate young people to embark on a voyage of innovation.
Karlovac Mayor Damir Mandić said the project was a proof that it was time for Karlovac to finally resolve its “complex” toward Tesla and create a venue he deserves.
“Just the technical documentation for this project has cost us half a million kuna, and most of the funds were granted by the Ministry of Regional Development and the EU funds. I am convinced that we will receive a grant from EU funds for the construction of this unique centre dedicated to the genius as well,” said Martina Furdek-Hajdin, the deputy prefect of Karlovac County.
Translated from Lokalni.hr (reported by Snježana Bičak).
