VRIJEME JE ZA GOSPODARSTVO Hrvoje Merki

Guest Hrvoje MerkiHosted by Darko BukovićMay 3, 2026

Hrvoje Merki

About this episode

What you'll hear in this conversation

Hrvoje Merki leads EUR-KA, a company that specializes in a counter-intuitive business: demolition as a precursor to creation. For over two decades, his teams have cleared more than a thousand structures across Croatia and beyond, not merely tearing down, but, as Merki puts it, "freeing up space for new." This isn't just about removing old buildings; it's about enabling greenfield investments and the next generation of infrastructure. Merki's perspective challenges the conventional view of construction waste, advocating for its full recovery and reuse. He champions a vision where discarded concrete, metal, and even paper become valuable resources for future projects, moving beyond the landfill. His work on complex projects, from the Bakar chimney to numerous hotels, highlights the technical precision and innovative thinking required to dismantle structures safely and sustainably. This conversation explores the hidden complexities of a business often misunderstood, revealing how deliberate strategy in demolition can drive economic renewal and environmental responsibility. Readers will leave with a renewed appreciation for the lifecycle of materials in construction and the vital role of specialized engineering in shaping our built environment.

Insights from the conversation

What to take from this episode

Merki's company motto, "We free up space for new," defines their core business not as destruction, but as the essential first step for fresh investment. Demolition, when seen this way, becomes a strategic enabler for greenfield projects and adds economic value by creating opportunities for new construction.

The process of taking down a major structure like the Hotel Park in Rovinj relies on more than just heavy machinery; it requires meticulous planning from civil engineers and structural experts. The real precision lies with specialized operators using hydraulic shears and pulverizers to break down reinforced concrete, highlighting demolition as a highly technical, engineered discipline.

When dismantling an administrative building in Zagreb, Merki's team extracted over fifty containers of paper, far exceeding initial estimates. This specific experience underscores his point that "construction waste is construction material" — a vast, often overlooked resource that should be systematically recovered rather than sent to landfills.

Merki describes the state as "the judge in the open market" for the construction sector, whose primary role should be to motivate investors to track and recover all types of demolition waste. Without clear oversight and incentives, valuable materials continue to end up in overloaded landfills, hindering circular economy efforts.

The "Eco sandwich" project, developed with the Faculty of Civil Engineering, created prefabricated facade panels from recycled concrete and brick. While the project didn't scale, the research proved the immense potential for incorporating recovered demolition materials into new, energy-efficient building components, suggesting a future where waste is a primary input.

The removal of the 250-meter Bakar chimney involved a specialized German technology where an external formwork slowly descended as sections were dismantled from the top down. Merki's decision to object to felling the lower section and instead dismantle it to 30 meters before felling, shows that large-scale demolition demands both innovative techniques and the courage to adapt plans for safety and material recovery.

During the 2015-2017 period when many Croatian workers sought jobs in Germany and Ireland, EUR-KA maintained a stable workforce of 80 to 100 employees, now at 103. This stability suggests that companies which successfully navigated that exodus did so by cultivating an environment that retained talent, rather than simply reacting to market pressures.

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