jona rak koceli

museum for sculptor

school project

Ljubljana, 2013

Our task was to design a museum on a location of an old abandoned  sugar factory "Cukrarna" in centre of Ljubljana. The museum had to be designed for a specific artist - sculptor Alexander Calder.

The idea was to design a volume, which is big enough to serve as an exhibition space, but small enough, that it does not overshadow the location's monument - the old factory.

Because of the 5m terrain fall on the location, the museum actually looks like a one-storey building, but actually has 15m tall ceilings.

The concept of the building was to create a closed, narrow and dark path, through which you ascend (or descent) to bright exhibition platforms.

The structure therefore consists of series of double walls, between which there is a stairway, a path through the museum with all the storage spaces needed. These walls represent the main supporting system, and are the only structural elements of the building. Between these strong walls there are platforms and roof panels, designed with integrated slabs, so that they can bridge 12m span.

The museum's monuments are arranged in a way, that they can be seen and studied from different perspectives. Monumentals are placed on the ground level, mobile hang down from the roof and stabile are placed on a different-levelled platforms. Each monumental and mobile can be seen either from ground level or from platforms - this offers unique museum experience.

Museum's design is minimalistic, using only three main elements (walls, platforms and roof panels), in order to highlight the art of Alexander Calder and to pay respect to the old "Cukrarna".