MINIPLEKS CITY CINEMA

LOCATION
Ljubljana, Slovenija

COMPETITION YEAR
April 2020

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

ARCHITECTURE
Robert Potokar, Mateja Šetina, Sabina Colnar, Špela Ščančar, Mina Gutović, Andrej Fojkar

COLLABORATORS
Tina Gradišer, Anže Kotnik

PRIZE
award - mention

As part of the transformation of the basement passage into a miniplex and the refurbishment of the ground-floor entrance pavilion, the surrounding landscape and the adjacent forecourt are also redesigned.

The cinema halls are arranged within the basement according to a rational orthogonal grid derived from the existing column layout, the functional requirements of the programme, and the need to adapt the intervention to the actual spatial conditions and site boundaries, thereby making the most efficient use of the available space.

All halls are accommodated exclusively within the available floor area of the first basement level. This minimises interventions in the second basement level and allows the excavation required for the new halls to be carried out at the shallowest possible depth. At the same time, this configuration enhances visitor comfort by providing access to all six, or five, halls at a single level. Visitors therefore descend only to the first basement, from which they access the individual hall entrances; only within each hall do they subsequently descend to a lower level.

The architectural concept of the ground-floor entrance pavilion establishes a deliberate dialogue with the former Chamber of Commerce building, designed by architects Medvešček and Jugovec. Its architectural language is characterised by a load-bearing orthogonal volume crowned by a roof conceived as a floating, semicircular concrete slab, whose underside carries a painted abstract artistic composition.

The entrance pavilion interprets this principle in a contemporary manner. It is set upon the orthogonal geometry of the sunken cinema halls, while its roof appears to float lightly above an organically articulated ground-floor volume. The projecting roof edge approaches the building line of Slovenska cesta and, on the western side, aligns with the edge of the park. Towards the north, the roof is diagonally cut by the geometry of Gosposvetska cesta, reinforcing its relationship with the surrounding urban structure.

The newly inserted volumes of the cinema halls remain perceptible within the basement space. Their outer envelope is articulated by rounded, semicircular corners, introducing softness into the otherwise rational geometry and giving the circulation spaces between the halls a more fluid and continuous character.