Architecture · Heritage Reconstruction · Project & Development Management
Giovanni Mladen Poropat is an architecture professional, project manager and development manager with more than two decades of experience across Croatia, Slovenia and Italy.
His professional path brings together two fields that have become increasingly interconnected over the years: the management of complex real estate developments and the architecture and reconstruction of existing buildings, with a particular focus on historic and traditional properties.
Today, he lives and works in Martina Franca, Puglia, where his professional activity is focused on a limited number of selected restoration and reconstruction projects, managing the entire process from the initial evaluation of a property and architectural concept through to construction and interiors.
2006–2011 | Development and Samobor Gardens
An important chapter of his professional experience is connected with Samobor Gardens, a large residential development in Samobor, near Zagreb.
The project involved the development of approximately 80,000 m² of previously undeveloped land into a new residential neighbourhood, including urban planning, complete infrastructure, public and green spaces, and residential construction.
The project was developed through Sitnica Ltd., within the investment structure of Atia Group and later with the involvement of the Austrian construction group PORR.
Poropat served as Business Manager and member of the management board of the project company, participating in investment development, project organisation, investor coordination and the coordination of architects, contractors and other participants throughout the implementation process.
This experience established the foundations of an approach that would remain present throughout his later career: architecture is not an isolated discipline, but part of a broader process involving property, investment, design, construction and the ultimate value of a project.
From 2010 | New Glow Of Dalmatian Ruins
During the final period of his involvement in large-scale development projects, another professional direction was already beginning to take shape.
In 2010, the association Novi sjaj dalmatinskih ruina was established, with the aim of recognising the potential of abandoned and neglected traditional stone buildings and bringing them back into contemporary life through thoughtful reconstruction.
Alongside Mladen and Vlatka Poropat, the initiative brought together professionals from architecture and real estate, including architect Hrvoje Hrabak.
The idea was simple, although still relatively unconventional at the time: old houses and ruins were not a problem to be removed, but an existing architectural and economic resource capable of being given a new life.
As early as 2012, the Croatian weekly Nacional wrote about the initiative, connecting it with Poropat’s previous experience in managing large construction and development projects such as Samobor Gardens.
This period marked a clear transition from large-scale development towards the field that would become his principal professional interest over the following fifteen years.
2011–2021 | Dalmatia and Istria
The following decade was defined by reconstruction projects across Dalmatia and Istria.
Through a series of old stone houses, ruins and existing buildings, a distinctive approach gradually developed around the relationship between the existing and the new.
The objective was never to create an imitation of the past.
The starting point is to understand the building, identify what carries genuine architectural value and preserve it, while introducing contemporary interventions clearly, functionally and without unnecessary scenography.
Traditional stone, existing structures and original proportions are combined with contemporary spatial organisation, technology, energy requirements and modern ways of living.
From this experience, the VMP Design model gradually evolved, bringing together architecture, interiors, reconstruction and project management within a single process.
2022 | BIG SEE and the Beginning of Puglia
The year 2022 marked an important point in this professional development.
Small House Sv. Foška, Istria received the BIG SEE Architecture Award 2022, giving international recognition to an architectural approach that had been developing over the previous decade.
The same year also marked the beginning of Poropat’s first reconstruction project in Puglia.
At that stage, however, Puglia was not yet the new professional base. Work in Italy developed gradually, in parallel with existing projects and business activities in Croatia and Slovenia, as well as a project in Trieste.
This marked the beginning of a gradual transition rather than an abrupt relocation of the practice.
2022–2025 | Croatia · Slovenia · Trieste · Puglia
Over the following years, professional activity progressively shifted towards Italy while previously undertaken projects in Croatia continued towards completion.
During this period, Puglia became an increasingly important part of both professional and personal life.
In 2025, Project M, the reconstruction of a 1968 house in Sveta Marina, Istria, was completed.
The project received the BIG SEE Architecture Award 2025, the second BIG SEE recognition for the work of VMP Design.
In many ways, it symbolically closed a long professional chapter in Istria at a time when the centre of activity was already progressively moving towards Puglia.
2026 → Martina Franca · Puglia
In 2026, Martina Franca became the permanent personal and professional base.
This was not the beginning of the work in Puglia, but the completion of a transition that had started four years earlier.
Through VMP Progetti / Puglia Heritage Homes, more than two decades of experience in development, project management, architecture and reconstruction are now concentrated within a relatively small area of Puglia.
The business model is deliberately different as well.
The objective is not a large number of projects or a large organisation, but a limited number of carefully selected reconstructions where the entire process can remain under direct personal involvement:
Property Evaluation · Concept · Architecture · Design · Reconstruction · Project Management · Interiors · Completed Home
This approach makes it possible to maintain a direct relationship with the project, the client, local craftsmen and, above all, the building itself.
Professional Approach
After more than two decades of experience, the fundamental idea remains remarkably close to the one that stood behind Novi sjaj dalmatinskih ruina at the beginning of the 2010s:
An existing building is not a limitation of the project – it is its starting point.
The value of reconstruction does not lie in returning a building to an imagined past, but in understanding what deserves to be preserved and finding a way for that architecture to function naturally once again within contemporary life.
Development experience remains as important as architecture itself. Every project must make sense architecturally, technically and economically.
From this experience comes the approach that VMP today defines as:
Intelligent Reconstruction
Giovanni Mladen Poropat
Professionista dell’architettura / Project Manager / CEO
Martina Franca · Puglia · Italy
VMP Progetti · Puglia Heritage Homes