jona rak koceli

The project's theme was revitalisation of the old printhouse in Ljubljana. Our task was to find the program suitable for this location and to re-design the existing architecture to serve the chosen program.

The building, created by Savin Sever, has a strong concrete structure with large open-span. It's strong character gives the feeling of informality and flexibility and it instantly reminded us of Mies van der Rohe's collage for a concert hall in an aircraft assembly plant - the open plan which provides freedom of designing spaces within. 

Deciding on which program is suitable for the location and the building, we came across the problem of "Three academies" in Ljubljana: The Academy for music, Art academy and Film/theatre/radio academy are three separate institutions, despite several collaborations, and each one doesn't have the space needed for optimal function. Also, they prefer spaces which are not well defined, so they can transform, distort, re-organize them. Our idea was to connect the three academies into one, and offer them as much flexible and creative space as possible.

We aimed the intervention to be highly respectful of the character of the building. We wanted to achieve not just a transformation of the building, but mainly it's recovery. Therefore the main constructive and structural elements were kept intact - the facade fillings were replaced by windows and the roof and the upper floor were perforated in order to get more sunlight into the space.  The perforated floor also serves as main communication system and the perforated roof covers an open plaza (main entrance point).

The whole concept of organizing flexible spaces is based on insertion of wooden boxes into the existing structure. These boxes vary in sizes and thickness - big transparent studios for sculptors  and small private rooms for professors. Boxes are individually placed or stacked one on the other to get more free space. The biggest box is placed outside the building and serves as a concert hall.
The project strategy is to create a small city within, which constantly transforms.

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