COMPETITION FOR A SCIENCE CENTRE IN LJUBLJANA

LOCATION
Ljubljana, Slovenija

COMPETITION YEAR
February 2019

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

ARCHITECTURE
Robert Potokar, Ajdin Bajrović, Špela Kuhar, Mina Gutović, Tina Gradišer,
Matej Fornazarič, Anja Patekar, Javier Carrera

PRIZE
award - mention

The Science Centre is conceived as a complex of four independent buildings, interconnected across three levels to form a changing organism, while also retaining the ability to function as autonomous units. We believe that the Centre—more accurately described as an organism than as a building—should operate 24 hours a day. For this reason, part of its activities is extended into the spaces between the buildings: squares, green areas and passages. Visitors can enter this part of the city at any time and continuously engage with experiments and educational installations. In this way, the Centre becomes part of each individual’s consciousness, part of the city, the country, the world and the universe as a whole. It encourages a greater awareness of science, ecology and sustainability.

The building is not conceived as a house, but rather as connective tissue within an organism—a network of contents and experiences through which visitors move, gradually discovering new perspectives on science. The route through the Centre can unfold in many different ways. Entering from Barjanska cesta, visitors arrive in the foyer and lower-level spaces, from where the route continues into the central space and onwards to the laboratories or planetarium. Ascending to the roof, the journey continues along the educational roofscape and, descending towards the multi-purpose hall, culminates in a thematic lecture. The diversity of programmes allows for numerous possible routes through the building and, consequently, creates the experience of a virtual journey through time.

The building opens both outwards and inwards. Its outward opening is conceived primarily as an invitation to visitors, pedestrians and drivers to respond to the building and enter the Science Centre from Barjanska cesta, Riharjeva ulica or the pedestrian path along the Gradaščica River. At the same time, visitors can move freely through the open spaces of the Science Centre, beginning their journey from any of these three primary entrances. Without entering the paid areas, the public can experience the Centre from both ground and roof levels. From every level, views into the central space open up transparently through the interplay of the various programmes.