Cover of Stella Alcaide’s project for the Master’s in Editorial Design at ESDESIGN

Split-3 is a publication that emerged from a journey to Croatia, where I discovered the modernist neighborhood of Split 3, a residential area built during 1970s Yugoslavia. That visit became a process of observation and documentation: a visual and architectural mapping of a place that fascinated me for its balance between socialist urban utopia and the everyday life that now inhabits it.

The project explores how the forms, volumes, and spaces of that modernist urbanism – originally conceived to promote collectivity – have evolved over time through the personal interventions of its residents. Through photographs, notes, and graphic fragments, the publication seeks to reinterpret the neighborhood as a trace of the architectural idealism of its era, while also revealing it as a living organism in constant transformation.

More than a simple document, Split-3 is a reflection on architecture as a witness to social and cultural change – an attempt to capture the tension between planned order and the spontaneity of real life that continually reshapes it.

Developed within the framework of my Master’s in Editorial Design, Split-3 also reflects my interest in how design can mediate personal experience and spatial memory. I wanted to create a simple yet carefully constructed publication that could convey the essence of a place through rhythm, sequencing, and visual composition rather than excess or ornament. This project became a way of translating one of my travels into a visual narrative, using editorial design as a tool to explore observation, structure, and emotion, bridging the gap between architecture, landscape, and personal perception.