ERJAVČEVA MULTI-DWELLING BUILDING

LOCATION
Ljubljana, Slovenia

COMPETITION YEAR
July 2019

ARCHITECTURE OFFICE
Ravnikar - Potokar arhitekturni biro d.o.o.

ARCHITECTURE
Robert Potokar, Sabina Colnar, Mina Gutović, Jernej Borko, Ajdin Bajrović

PRIZE
award

The new multi-residential building on Erjavčeva Street is situated in the sensitive urban context of central Ljubljana, in proximity to archaeological excavations on one side and Ravnikar’s Trg republike on the other. The new building follows the established building lines and makes the most of the available development potential by stepping back at ground-floor level from the expanded volume above. This creates a covered outdoor space in front of the entrance. The ground floor can accommodate a public archaeological exhibition, while the interior could house a bookshop and newsstand with an internet café, with the possibility of serving customers beneath the overhanging volume or in the adjacent park.

The apartments are dual-aspect, with views opening towards the park to the east and towards the greenery surrounding the entire site. On the upper two floors—particularly on the fourth floor—unexpected views open towards the north, encompassing Ravnikar’s towers, Cankarjev dom and the Ursuline Church; towards the east, the views extend across the city towards the castle in the background, while to the west they reach towards Rožnik.

The architectural design partly follows the architecture of Navinšek’s school, with a load-bearing structural grid arranged along the perimeter, while at the same time adopting the cantilevered principle of Ravnikar’s towers, with the upper floors extending beyond the footprint of the ground floor. The building is conceived as a reinforced-concrete frame structure composed of slabs and columns. The column grid is denser at ground-floor level and gradually opens up towards the upper floors, so that on the fourth floor the structural piers are more widely spaced, giving the architecture a lighter and more open character.

In both structural and formal terms, the architectural concept can be understood as a kind of tree: its roots spread through the ground, while its load-bearing trunk branches into progressively finer limbs. This analogy is expressed in the concrete frame, where large glazed surfaces are inserted between the concrete piers. These reflect the surrounding trees and recreate the appearance of a form of green architecture, allowing the building to visually merge with its leafy surroundings.