Valeria Zamora Marco

    The project is located in  Liubliana, the capital of Slovenia. Liubliana is in origin a roman city, called Emora, which ancient ruins still remain below the pavements of the city centre. The north part of the  centre holds cultural facilities such as museums, theaters and libraries that animate the life of Liubliana. On the south of the city centre the university buildings are scattered in the residential fabric, which simultaneously blends with the suburban agriculture. 

 

    The urban void of the site is likely to become an important academic exchange interface. This space has the same dimensions as the one that already exists in the north part of the city centre, around the congress center of Cankarjev Dom. Both voids should work in parallel articulating the north and the south sides of the city centre creating a flow of people between them. It is very important for us to ensure and reinforce this north-south connection in the project. 

 

    The roman wall, parallel to the site area, defined the limits of the ancient Roman city and strongly marks the character of the lot. However it is not the only preexisting element of the project: there is also a Plecknic building which nowadays hosts a high school and university labs.

 

    The hard constraints of the site forced us to take decisions concerning the existing buildings and ruins. On one hand we found convenient to keep a minimal distance to the roman wall with to objectives: first to have enough space to walk along and to contemplate it and second to increase its value in the urban landscape. On the other hand the powerful presence of the Plecknic’s building pushed us to conserve it: the corner and the two façades that defines the exterior limits of the site have a great presence in the configuration of the two avenues that run parallel to the building. Furthermore, the base has great potentials to introduce a new scale between the preexisting building and the pedestrians. We played with its height and thickness to create a scene for the new university’s hub, a square of life and exchange.