Architecture often begins with constraints.
For this hotel project in Radanovići, Kotor, one of the defining conditions was its immediate relationship with the Adriatic Highway — a highly active traffic corridor whose presence inevitably influenced the organisation, expression and environmental strategy of the building.
Rather than treating this condition as something external to the design process, it became one of the elements from which the architecture itself was developed.
Project:
Mixed-use hotel
Location:
Radanovići / Kotor, Montenegro
Architecture:
Enforma
Client:
Vukšić Group
Three volumes, three functional identities
The project brief extended beyond conventional hotel accommodation. It also required a multifunctional hall and a wellness and spa centre, introducing different programmes with different spatial requirements.
The architectural response was to separate these functions into three clearly articulated geometric bodies.
The hotel accommodation is organised within two dominant rectangular volumes. Between them sits a contrasting circular form accommodating the multifunctional hall and wellness & spa facilities.
The resulting composition establishes a clear functional hierarchy while giving the project its recognisable architectural identity.
But the arrangement of the volumes has another role.
Creating an internal micro-urban condition
By positioning the main volumes around the centre of the composition, the project creates a more protected internal environment.
A quiet green zone develops within the building complex, spatially distanced from the intensity of the highway.
In this sense, the architecture operates almost at an urban scale.
The individual volumes define edges, transitions and relationships between public, private and semi-private areas. Instead of treating the hotel as a single isolated mass, the project establishes a small internal spatial system in which built volumes and landscape work together.
This micro-urban approach becomes particularly important because of the contrasting conditions surrounding the site: a highly active road environment outside and a more intimate hospitality environment within.
The façade as an environmental instrument
The façade facing the Adriatic Highway responds directly to one of the project's most significant contextual challenges: traffic noise.
A double-skin façade system is introduced both towards the highway and on the rear side of the building.
The external layer consists of a perforated aluminium skin.
Its purpose is simultaneously architectural and technical.
Visually, the perforated layer establishes a unified exterior expression and gives the building a distinct identity when experienced from the road.
Functionally, it contributes an additional layer of acoustic protection, helping mediate between the busy infrastructure surrounding the site and the interior spaces of the hotel.
The façade therefore becomes more than an envelope. It works as a filter between two different environments.
From protection to openness
One of the defining characteristics of the project is the contrast between its external and internal expressions.
Towards the road, architecture behaves defensively. The additional façade layer provides protection, filtering the surrounding environment.
Moving towards the interior, this condition changes.
The building gradually sheds its additional outer skin and opens towards the central zone.
Here, the architectural language becomes warmer and more direct. The protected internal space reveals the actual organisation of the complex, allowing the individual volumes to become clearly legible.
This transition — from a filtered exterior to an open interior — is fundamental to the architectural concept.
