1.Town Hall, Udine, Raimondo D’Aronco, 1911-30 / Narodni dom, Trieste, Max Fabiani, 1901-04
D’Aronco’s town hall in Udine and Fabiani’s Narodni dom in Trieste are two buildings that seek to affirm, respectively, Italian identity and the values of the Slovenian community.
The former mainly reinterprets the late-16th-century tradition. The latter, while also looking to the past, nonetheless favours a search for modernity, not unrelated to Fabiani’s Viennese experience.
2.Town Hall of Pontebba, Provino Valle, 1923 / The Sokol House, Ljubljana, Ivan Vurnik, 1920-25
A few years after the end of the Great War, Provino Valle designed the town hall of Pontebba. To mark the presence of victorious Greater Italy in this mountain village, where there was once a border, a stately neo-mannerist palace was erected to deliberately emphasise the “Roman” presence and its distance from the local architecture.
In the same years, in the Slovenian capital of the newly formed kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ivan Vurnik designed the headquarters of the Pan-Slavic sports association Sokol, which had been a leading player in the widespread anti-Austrian uprisings in the Empire since the end of the 19th century. In this architecture, which marks the expansion of the historic city towards the east, Vurnik resorted to vernacular architecture, pursuing an indigenous style and inventing architectural languages and mythologies.
3.Ossuary Temple, Udine, Alessandro Limongelli and Provino Valle, 1925-38 / The Garden of All Saints, Žale, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1937-40
The diptych juxtaposes two solemn pieces of architecture, practically contemporary but different in their volumetric and functional development. What they have in common is the shape of the triumphal arch that leads to the areas dedicated to funeral celebrations. In the case of Žale, the arch leads to a garden, where we first encounter the canopy (liturgical centrepiece) and then the numerous mortuary chapels scattered almost randomly throughout the open space. Their design is not uniform but varies in a reworking of styles for each piece of architecture: from mounds to chapels of Byzantine, Greek, neoclassical, and other styles. The Ossuary Temple, on the other hand, is an interior with a basilica layout, which leads through an enfilade of red columns to the crypt, where the remains of 21,500 soldiers who fell in the Great War are kept.
4.Post Office Building, Gorizia, Angiolo Mazzoni, 1927-32 / Modern Art Gallery, Ljubljana, Edvard Ravnikar, 1939-51
Mazzoni’s post office building is the first important government building in Italian Gorizia. It revives the traditional Italian public building model in a new form, accompanied by the characteristic tower, a symbol of power. Uncertain in its stylistic direction, on the main street it prefers the pointed arch motif to a previous solution with a round arch.
The Modern Art Gallery, on the other hand, is the last in a series of public buildings constructed between the two world wars in Slavic Ljubljana. It was the first major commission for Edvard Ravnikar, who synthesised the experiences of his two masters, Jože Plečnik and Le Corbusier, in this building. The façade is characterised by a rhythm of three different treatments of the same stone and is crowned by a corrugated copper cornice (a direct reference to the National Library). The portal leads to a complex succession of zenithally lit exhibition spaces and constitutes an extremely flexible museum space, demonstrating the pioneering quality of this architecture.
5.Aedes Palace, Trieste, Arduino Berlam, 1924-28 / The Skyscraper, Ljubljana, Vladimir Šubic, 1929
Despite not even closely attaining the dimensional audacity of the American skyscraper, which the architects claim to be inspired by, the two buildings constructed in the two most dynamic urban realities of the 1920s clearly express an American taste. Traces of modernity can be seen not only in the style, but also in the structural component, consisting of reinforced concrete frames.
The Trieste building stands out as the only non-neoclassical building on the waterfront, with a tripartite façade characterised by the strong colours of the bricks, which become majolica tiles with geometric designs in the most decorated parts.
The skyscraper in Ljubljana reaches a height of 71 metres and crowns a complex architectural structure that occupies an entire block with offices and residences and incorporates a shopping area through “passages”. It is also characterised by the rich design of the black marble vestibule and the circular staircase that runs the entire height of the building.
6.Oslavia War Memorial, Ghino Venturi, 1930-38 / Ossuary, Žale, Ljubljana, Edvard Ravnikar, 1937-39
The juxtaposition of the buildings responds to a dual purpose: functional (they house the remains of soldiers who fell during the First World War) and formal (both reproduce the ancient model of the circular Roman mausoleum). Here, architectural affinities seem to overcome ideological differences. The two ossuaries, built a few years apart, celebrate the memory of soldiers who died on opposing sides. The commemoration recovers ancient and shared models, highlighting areas of architectural autonomy.
7.Covered market, Trieste, Camillo Jona, 1935-36 / Covered market, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1940-42
The two markets mark a moment of urban transformation in their respective cities. Jona’s building, located on a triangular plot overlooking Largo Barriera Vecchia, reflects the more modern (“rationalist”) image of Trieste in the 1930s, expressed above all by the corner solution, with ribbon windows sloping to follow the internal ramp for loading and unloading goods, which connects the ground and first floors. Plečnik’s complex, a true urban masterpiece, links the fragmented spaces of the city in a single urban gesture (narrowed from 3.5m to 5m), characterised by a colonnade over 300m long. Two buildings which, although different in language, offer a spatial and urban design of absolute modernity.
8.University of Trieste, Raffaele Fagnoni and Umberto Nordio, 1938-50 / National University Library, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1931-41
Both buildings are icons in their respective cities. The former is deliberately located so as to visually dominate Trieste, while the latter is more discreetly integrated into the urban fabric. One aims to declare the “Roman” presence in the city, the other to display a renewed architectural primitivism with its brick and rough stone façade. Of particular interest in both projects is the role played by the monumental staircases, which symbolically represent transition, the intellectual and spiritual ascent towards knowledge.
9.Assicurazioni Generali Palace, Trieste, Marcello Piacentini, 1935-39 / Insurance Company Palace, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1928-30
Thanks to their large capital, insurance companies played a fundamental role in giving a new monumental face to the city in the 20th century. Piacentini’s Generali Building in Trieste and Plečnik’s Insurance Company Building in Ljubljana are clear examples of this.
In a central area, Piacentini’s building aims to set the tone for other new constructions in the Old Town; in a more peripheral area, Plečnik’s building aims to redevelop an area adjacent to the train station. The abstract motif of the giant portal in the first case and the overlapping layers of brick columns in the second case restore an urban and monumental value to the two buildings.
10.Casa Opiglia, Trieste, Umberto Nordio, 1935-37 / The small skyscraper, Ljubljana, Herman Hus, 1931-32
Nordio’s tall house is part of the Old Town transformation plan. Its tall profile is a new take on the tradition of historic Italian cities, whose skyline is not flat but undulating, marked by buildings of varying heights and tower-like elements. Nordio emphasises its uniqueness, cladding it in brick and enhancing its plasticity by smoothing the edges.
A similar dynamism can be found in the residential building in Ljubljana which, although small in size, has been dubbed by citizens as “the small skyscraper”. Always seen from an angle, in a fairly dense and irregular urban context, thanks to the perspective and dynamic effects created by the architect Hus, one actually has the illusion of being in front of a larger building.
11.Row houses, Torviscosa, Giuseppe De Min, 1937-38 / Workers’ colony, Maribor, Ivan Vurnik, 1928-33
These two complexes allow us to compare the ways in which two different political realities addressed the issue of social housing for the less well-off between the two world wars. The workers’ houses in Torviscosa are the result of a hybridisation between a typological distribution study, typical of social housing, to which De Min applied stylistic elements – in particular, the motif of the portico with arches – recovered with a certain inventiveness from the rural world. The workers’ colony in Maribor consists of a series of two-storey terraced buildings with gabled roofs. Its simple functional layout, colour scheme, and modest decorative elements clearly derive from models from Weimar Germany.
12.Church of the Heart of Mary, Trieste, Umberto Nordio, 1940-71 / Church of St. Michael, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1940
Set on a narrow, steeply sloping corner lot in a densely built-up area, Nordio’s church aims, on the one hand, to give the religious building the necessary visibility and, on the other, to blend the new intervention with the existing building fabric. A decisive element in this composition is the circular bell tower, a reworking of the one in Chioggia, which acts as a geometric pivot and visual focal point.
In the Slovenian example, too, the image of the architecture is determined by the treatment of the bell tower which, in keeping with the tradition of rural churches in these areas, is the central element of the façade, through which one enters the liturgical space. Plečnik’s ability to bring the sacredness of ecclesiastical spaces to life is clearly expressed in this church, designed for a suburban community with modest funds at its disposal. The interior is characterised by an intimate and warm rectangular space, almost entirely made of wood, softened by floral decorative motifs and copper chandeliers.
13.War Memorial, Redipuglia, Giovanni Greppi and Giannino Castiglioni, 1936-38 / Šance, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1934-39
The ossuary by Greppi and Castiglioni is a large stepped sculpture, located on the gentle slope of the Sei Busi hill. Due to its size – it extends for 500 metres – it takes on a territorial significance. The 22 steps hold the remains of 40,000 soldiers, arranged in strict alphabetical order. The result is an effective commemorative device, an architectural setting designed by fascism to regiment memory into its own overbearing ideology.
Despite its profound functional difference from Redipuglia, Jože Plečnik’s Šance park demonstrates the same attention to architecture that becomes landscape. The unified design of Redipuglia is counterbalanced by a complex structure that develops among trees, railings, restored medieval walls, paths and masonry arches, with the aim of completing the urban restoration of the castle hill, from which to observe the new capital of Slovenian identity.
14.Dam, Sauris, Carlo Semenza, 1941-48 / Dam, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1939-44
Both dams are the same type of infrastructure and were built to show off technical and engineering skills and boldness. Although located in different contexts – the Sauris dam in the peripheral Alpine valleys, Plečnik’s dam in the centre of the capital – the infrastructures take on an iconic role. Plečnik combines the exposed reinforced concrete structure with classical ornamentation, consisting of lintels, columns, and sculptures, to demonstrate technical mastery over nature.
15.War Memorial, Gorizia, Enrico Del Debbio, 1924-29 / Monument to the Resistance, Ljubljana, Jože Plečnik, 1954
The diptych presents two commemorative structures built 25 years apart to honour the victims of two different wars. What the juxtaposition seeks to highlight is the use, even in recent times, of archetypal elements of architecture – the column in Del Debbio’s case, the sphere and cube in Plečnik’s case – to mark the ahistorical dimension of the classical lexicon. This dimension is perceptible despite the destruction of the Gorizia monument (originally a tholos, with an ornate frieze and dome). The only column still standing rises above the pile of stones and evokes, in pure 18th-century style, its dimension as a ruin.
16.Ara Pacis Mundi, Medea, Mario Baciocchi, 1950-51 / Kampor Memorial, Rab, Edvard Ravnikar, 1953.
The commemoration of the World War II tragedies is different in the two countries. While in Friuli case there is still continuity with the previous tradition of the fascist “Ventennio”, Ravnikar’s intervention manifests a radical rethinking of the theme of the memorial. In both cases, nature plays an important role in the perception of the intervention. While the Ara Pacis Mundi stands as an observer in an evocative position overlooking the plains towards the Julian Alps, the Kampor Memorial becomes part of the landscape itself: places with different symbolic characteristics are held together in a path defined by a vast sequence of sculptural elements, spatial relationships, and perceptual effects, all set in a landscape of cypresses, olive trees, and Mediterranean scrub.
17.Villaggio del fanciullo, Villa Opicina, Marcello D’Olivo, 1950-57 / House of the District People’s Committee, Kranj, Edvard Ravnikar, 1954-60
Only a few years after the end of the Second World War, thanks to the advent of new construction techniques, new structural and formal possibilities for architecture began to emerge. The expressiveness of buildings was achieved through the manipulation of reinforced concrete construction components, thanks to the invention of new structural forms and the exploitation of the spatial possibilities they offered to architecture. D’Olivo’s bent pillars and partitions, like Ravnikar’s corrugated roof, represent two pioneering moments in this research. Large spaces, continuous windows, and exposed structures are themes that, despite the differences in linguistic solutions, bring the architectural movements of the two countries closer together.
18.Inail Palace, Trieste, Romano Boico, 1952-57 / Palace of the District People’s Committee, Nova Gorica, Vinko Glanz, 1948-52
Two emblematic buildings from the early post-war period that document a moment of transition in architecture between continuity with the previous period, and full modernity. Both are monumental public buildings, with classic urban palace layouts (long porticoes, tripartite façades, etc.), entirely clad, thus concealing their reinforced concrete structure. Of particular interest is the volumetric articulation of Boico’s building, which stands in a difficult historical (the Roman theatre) and topographical context; equally noteworthy are the series of decorative details on Glanz’s building, imported from Plečnik’s teachings of the 1930s.
19.Zipser, Grado, Marcello D’Olivo, 1960-64 / Kozolec, Ljubljana, Edo Mihevc, 1953-57
Traces of the famous Unitè d’Habitation in Marseille, the work of the most influential architect of the 20th century, Le Corbusier, can be found both in the chaotic reality of the centre of Ljubljana and on the peaceful seafront of Grado. While in the case of D’Olivo we see a typological reinterpretation (with the interlocking of double-sided apartments), with Mihevc we are confronted with a reference to the urban image. The volumes are united by a similar functional distinction and size, but differ in the treatment of the main façade, favouring horizontality (Mihevc) or a more vertical rhythm (D’Olivo’s sunshades).
20.Monument to the Resistance, Udine, Gino Valle, 1958-69 / Cemetery of Hostages, Draga pri Begunjah, Edvard Ravnikar, 1953
During the 1950s, Valle and Ravnikar were engaged in the theme of World War II memorials. In both cases, the potential of abstraction emerges in an admirable way: the large suspended quadrilateral in Udine, the series of triangular gravestones in Begunje. For both architects, abstract objects are not the ultimate goal of the intervention, or the centrality of the monument, but rather devices for relating the context (urban or natural) to the visitor’s spatial-temporal experience. Monuments thus become kinetic experiences of memory, to be experienced with the senses.
21.Zanussi Office building, Porcia, Gino Valle, 1957-61 / Tower S2, Ljubljana, Milan Mihelič, 1972-78
The Italian economic miracle and the vitality of self-managed socialism find their own architectural expression in these buildings. Rather than emphasising a stylistic affinity, this diptych relates two office buildings for their dynamism of great urban significance. The first, in exposed reinforced concrete, lies horizontally, a visual dam in a fragmented building context; the second, in steel and glass (with the service tower at the rear in concrete), dominates the northern entrance to the city with its verticality. In the neo-brutalist tradition, each structural component expresses its own construction technique, finding its own formal dignity.
22.Ariston residential tower, Lignano, Gianni Avon, 1960 / Residential towers, Ljubljana, Milan Mihelič, 1972-78
The residential tower block is one of the central themes of post-war architecture. It is a type of building that guarantees high population density while occupying a limited amount of land, but which presents considerable difficulties in terms of the expressive and plastic management of volume. These two buildings are extraordinary examples of the “design” of vertical objects. In both cases, we see a successful combination of exposed reinforced concrete structural elements and clinker infill panels. This creates vibrant rhythms and unusual three-dimensionality, suitable both for the image of a tourist centre on the Adriatic and for the residence of a socialist bourgeoisie.
23.Town Hall, Pordenone, Ignazio Gardella, 1959-76 / House of Culture, Velenje, Oton Gaspari, 1959
Two almost contemporary buildings play a decisive public role in their respective cities. In the post-war years, both buildings served to enrich the modernist language, one traditionally abstract and acontestual. This development was carried out by seeking either a dialogue with the medieval history of the city (Gardella) or with decorative elements developed in collaboration with the artists of the time (Gaspari).
24.Reception pavillion, Arta Terme, Gino Valle, 1962-64 / Hotel Creina, Kranj, Edvard Ravnikar, 1968-70
Structuralism and fairy-tale elements blend in these two buildings dedicated to tourism. In Hotel Creina, Ravnikar takes the expressive role of detail to the extreme. The reinforced concrete elements (bands, parapets), bricks (window frames, corner decorations) and copper (cantilevered roofs) create an evocative architectural landscape that almost conceals the building’s volumes. On the other hand, Eastern architecture, filtered through the teachings of Frank Lloyd Wright, determines the peculiar pagoda roof of the Arta Thermal Baths. Inside, the magic of the space is created by the light that penetrates through the continuous windows and the four pillars that support the roof, true sculptures inspired by De Stijl.
25.Building in Via Mercatovecchio, Udine, Gino Valle, 1962-64 / Extension of the high school on Šubičeva, Ljubljana, Edvard Ravnikar, 1970
The analogy between these two projects should be understood in terms of the arduous but fertile physical and conceptual relationship with the historical pre-existence. In this, one of Valle’s most famous projects, the architect confronts the rhythm of Udine’s medieval structure. He opts for an iron construction in which marble windows and infill panels are inserted. In this way, he maintains the image of a Gothic house, reinterpreting the original materials. Ravnikar’s comparison with the façade of his master Plečnik is much more abstract. A flat, stepped volume with few openings stands out from the
26.Monte Grisa Sanctuary, Trieste, Antonio Guacci and Sergio Musmeci, 1963-66 / Revolution Square, Ljubljana, Edvard Ravnikar, 1959-82
Absolute symbols of their respective cities, the two complexes dominate the landscape with their silhouettes. The different functions – church and sanctuary on the one hand, political and administrative headquarters of socialist Ljubljana on the other – do not prevent us from seeing the unique similarities between the two. Above all, the triangular motif that defines the image of the two buildings, although it develops along different formal lines: the triangle as the basic element of the structure at Monte Grisa and as a planimetric-spatial layout in Ljubljana. Furthermore, it is worth highlighting the prominence of the architectural structure, which involved the best engineers from both countries, confirming a period of extraordinary collaboration between the disciplines of architecture and engineering.
27.Cattinara Hospital, Trieste, Luciano Semerani and Gigetta Tamaro, 1965-83 / University Medical Centre, Ljubljana, Stanko Kristl, 1975-77
Built almost in parallel, the two complexes show us different ways of conceiving and organising hospital architecture. Created under different spatial and typographical conditions, they were designed to meet different needs. In the case of Trieste, we see the intention to create a modern acropolis, consisting of pavilions of different sizes, where the two exposed concrete buildings stand out. In Ljubljana, on the other hand, we see horizontal flow architecture, designed to connect and accompany the route between wards. In both projects, the interior design is extremely interesting, interpreting the overall spatial intent down to the smallest detail.
28.Banca Popolare, Gemona, Luciano Gemin and Carlo Scarpa, 1978-84 / Meblo commercial building, Nova Gorica, Kamilo Kolarič, 1970
The diptych combines architectures that are quite different in terms of function, style, and materials. However, they manifest themselves in a reinterpretation of the modernist language, which can be seen in the characterisation and oversizing of the primary elements of architecture. Projecting terraces, disproportionate cornices, cantilevered beams and unconventional roofs are just some of the formal gestures that architects use to ennoble their architecture. A sort of search for a new form of ornamentation that transforms excess into a qualifying act.
29.Snaidero Office building, Maiano, Angelo Mangiarotti, 1974-78 / Jožef Stefan Nuclear Institute, Podgorica near Ljubljana, Oton Jugovec, 1960-1966
In the 1960s and 1970s, architects began experimenting with new materials, not only to reduce construction costs, but also to test new forms and images for buildings. These two objects, practically cubic in shape and isolated in the landscape, are examples of such research. What makes them unique is not their mass, but their shells. Mangiarotti’s building, suspended on four columns, is clad in polyester resin panels, lightened by elliptical portholes, which give the factory’s representative building an unmistakable character. Aluminium sheet metal flakes cover Jugovec’s volume, which houses a small nuclear reactor in the centre and consists of four concrete walls supporting a monolithic dome.
30.PeeP Est social housing, Udine, Gino Valle, 1975-79 / Neighbourhood BS 7, Ljubljana, Marjan Bežan, Vladimir Braco Mušič, Nives Starc (Institute of Urban Design of SR Slovenia), 1967-73
One of the most important challenges in post-war architecture was the design of social housing estates. The high demand for housing was met by designing large-scale complexes and, at the same time, creating green spaces and areas for community use. This diptych brings together two of the most interesting proposals realised between the late 1960s and the 1970s in the two countries. These works bear witness to a rethinking of the “first” generation of modernist housing estates, which were considered alienating and insufficient for the creation of urban communities.
In both cases, the focus is on collective space, the “connective street”, a central place for spontaneous gatherings and interactions between residents. The BS7 neighbourhood is designed as a network of pedestrian streets, surrounded by pairs of residential blocks, located above ground level above the garages. In Valle’s architecture, however, the concept of “street” takes the form of public terraces, carved out on two floors within the volume. In both cases, particular attention is paid to the colour scheme, a tool for visually overcoming the monotony of prefabricated systems.
31.San Sabba rice mill National Monument, Trieste, Romano Boico, 1966-75 / Monument to the Gonars Concentration Camp, Gonars, Miodrag Živković, 1971-1973
Two places designed to rescue memories from oblivion.
In Trieste, the architecture aims to transform that anonymous former factory, part of a desolate suburb, but also the scene of immense human brutality, into a sacred, non-rhetorical place, a secular open-air basilica.
In Gonars, on the other hand, carved out of the cemetery, a sculptural object is proposed, resembling a large stylised flower, which welcomes into its calyx, among its petals, the space of intimate memory, pain, and loss.
On the one hand, a silent, minimalist composition; on the other, an inventive gesture.
32.IACP Rozzol Melara housing, Trieste, Carlo and Luciano Celli and Dario Tognon, 1969-82 / Maribor-Sud Project, Vladimir Braco Mušič, Zdenka Goriup, Lojze Gosar, Leon Lenarčič (Institute of Urban Design of SR Slovenia), 1975-80
Further examples that testify to the fertile reflection on collective residences. In this case, the large number is managed in an almost opposite way. The Rozzol Melara neighbourhood is a monolithic and enclosed object, recognisable from all over the city: the large number of apartments is distributed in two L-shaped buildings, which form a square geometry, at the centre of which are some collective services. Leaning against the sloping terrain, the complex slides in section and offers a view of the Gulf of Trieste from most of the rooms.
The Maribor Sud neighbourhood, on the other hand, is a portion of the city built on the principle of neighbourhood unity. The design team’s task is to create precise volumetric and spatial hierarchies between the areas: multifunctional areas, strictly residential areas, areas for educational and sports services, parking and pedestrian paths. The architecture is, in fact, the result of a sophisticated social project, designed down to the smallest scale. Several decades later, it has proven to withstand the onslaught of urban transformation very well.
33.Fantoni Factory, Osoppo, Gino Valle 1972-75 / Mladinska Knjiga printing house, Ljubljana, Savin Sever, 1963-66.
This comparison highlights a parallel between the design methodologies of two different architects. Applied here to industrial architecture, they express a taste for structural architecture and the combinatorial possibilities of its standardised elements.
The projects are in fact entirely based on the theme of the assembly of exposed load-bearing elements and their serial repetition in space. This method is carried out with extreme precision and rhythm, giving even industrial architecture (generally less subject to aesthetic research) a monumentality and a formal identity that is not standardised but “personalised”. The only differences between the two buildings are the details – Sever’s pillar with joint and Valle’s perforated beams – which, at the scale of the entire building, become characteristic features.
34.Pam supermarket, Trieste, Carlo and Luciano Celli and Dario Tognon, 1972-73 / Shopping centre in Šiška, Ljubljana, Miloš Bonča, 1960-64
A large number of Italian and Yugoslav architects worked intensively in the 1960s and 1970s on the relationship between structural and linguistic components, the relationship between construction and architectural space, and the material effects of exposed reinforced concrete. These two shopping centres – different in form and urban ambition – belong to this happy season of structural architecture, also referred to by some as “neo-brutalist”.
The Pam expresses dynamism, while Bonča’s building expresses rhythmic staticity. In the Pam, the concrete mass is shaped by large gestures, portals, lintels and cylindrical ascensions: an architecture designed with virtually no detail. In Bonča, on the other hand, everything is detail. The exposed structure produces twenty entirely glazed spans, enriched by a combination of fixtures, bands, cornices and a protruding roof: the latter casts a mass of shadow over the volume, hiding its connection with the façade.
35.Town Hall, Osoppo, Luciano Semerani, Gigetta Tamaro, 1978 / Town Hall, Sežana, Vojteh Ravinikar, Marko Dekleva, Matjaž Garzarolli, Egon Vatovec (Kras Group), 1977-1979
These two buildings share many themes. First of all, they were built at the same time and display a reinvigorated contextualism. Both buildings are located in complex historical spaces, incorporating the morphology and languages of historical fabrics into their stylistic features and gestures. Both express a design approach that in architectural jargon is called “postmodernism”: a critical reinterpretation of modern architecture and its “enrichment” or re-signification through historical stylistic features.
But there is another, perhaps even more significant theme that unites the two buildings: the architects (Luciano Semerani and Vojteh Ravnikar) are deeply linked by collaborations and cultural exchanges, both academic and editorial. After decades of political and cultural “detachment”, professions and intellectuals of the two worlds find themselves in dialogue once again probably as never before. They are tackling the same problems with similar tools.
36.Church of the Blessed Odorico, Pordenone, Mario Botta, 1987-1992 / Islamic Cultural Centre, Ljubljana, Bevk-Perović, 2018-2020
Separated by almost three decades, the buildings represent the highest and most up-to-date research in these territories on the theme of religious architecture. Two different generations of designers confront each other on the same theme. Botta works with “earthly” materials (brick, wood, and concrete), Bevk-Perović with more abstract ones (steel and glass). What they have in common is their starting point, namely primary geometry: domes and cubes for Bevk-Perović, cones and porticoed boxes for Botta. But it is the interpretation and material definition of primary geometry, through admirable control of construction details, that gives the two spaces an intense spirituality, in a completely modern key.
37.Pavilion for meetings and parties in Cormor Park, Udine, Roberto Pirzio Biroli, 1989-93 / Covering of archaeological remains, Otok, Dobrava, Oton Jugovec, 1973
Archetypal coverings that stand out in the natural landscape serve different functions: a place for meeting and socialising in an urban park (Udine), simple protection for archaeological remains in an agricultural environment (Dobrava). The first is a pavilion characterised by its simplicity: unadorned columns, balanced in proportion, support a flat roof embracing the remains of a fortress and an ancient observation tower. The second is a small wooden structure, a true tectonic masterpiece: a double-pitched roof is supported by a central beam resting on only two pillars.
38.Hotel 1301inn, Piancavallo, Studio Elastico, 2010-12 / Celjska koča mountain hut, Pečovnik – Celje, Arhitektura Krušec, 2004-06.
The two buildings reveal how contemporary architecture responds to the challenges posed by new Alpine tourism. These are objects that fulfil multiple functions, contain modern spaces and, due to the delicate context, have problematic dimensions. The theme of camouflage, or rather, integration into the mountain environment, is the subject of design reflection. In both cases, the use of wooden cladding roots the architecture to the place; however, the particular shapes of the volumes reveal an attempt at a modern response to mountain tradition. This is possible thanks to the complex reinforced concrete structures, which are plastic and visible in Elastico’s design, but concealed in Krušec’s.
39.House of Music, Cervignano, Geza (Gri Zucchi architects), 2004-10 / France Bevk Library, Nova Gorica, Vojteh Ravnikar, Robert Potokar, Maruša Zorec, 1993-2000
These two award-winning public buildings are linked by a crucial theme: their relationship with their historical and/or natural context. In the case of Geza, it is an intervention within an existing building, which is redesigned and spatially subverted to accommodate a variety of functions. An iconic gesture determines the appearance of the entrance: five large portals-windows open the two internal floors to the outside.
The Bevk Library is a veritable lesson in architectural contextualism in spatial terms. It is a building structured in two formally distinct gestures: the almost silent volume facing the square, which fills the corner of the monumental space; and the rear body, which opens up like a fan, offering the library’s reading spaces a magical visual interaction with the adjacent tree-lined hill.
40.School complex, Polcenigo, Studio Elastico, 2012 / Pedenjped kindergarden, Ljubljana, Maja Ivanič, Anja Planišček, Andraž Intihar, Urša Habič, 2013-18
Recent investment policies in the education sector in Slovenia have allowed some architectural firms to develop a series of new typological solutions for school buildings. One of the most interesting examples of this research is the Pedenjped kindergarden. Built entirely of wood above ground, the building is designed with a circular plan, inside which there is a protected courtyard that isolates the play area from the chaotic and noisy urban exterior.
While the Slovenian national plan has no adequate counterpart across the border, the school in Polcenigo shows that this issue is also being considered in Italy. Unlike the absolute form of the nursery school in Ljubljana, it consists of separate buildings, which differ both in their irregular positioning and in their cladding materials. What ties everything together is an irregularly shaped double-pitched roof, cut in some places to bring light into the building.
41.Pratic Headquarters, Fagagna, Udine, Geza (Gri Zucchi architects), 2018 / Ksevt Cultural Centre, Vitanje, Dekleva-Gregorič, Sadar-Vuga, Ofis, Bevk-Perović, 2012.
Although radically different in function – a production building and a museum-cultural centre – the two projects are united by their formal absolutism, and polycarbonate panel cladding. The geometries and materials are alien to the surrounding landscape, yet the changes in its “moods” and colours are absorbed by the buildings, thanks to the reflections and mirroring produced by the cladding.
42.Albergo diffuso, Paluzza, Gaetano Ceschia, Federico Mentil, 2013-14 / House R, Bohinj, Bevk-Perović, 2003-08.
These two projects, which are only apparently elementary, clearly demonstrate one of the most current research areas in contemporary architecture: interpreting the archetype of the house. Different in size and client requirements (the first is a small mountain house for tourist use, the second a family holiday home), they redesign the classic form of the double-pitched roof typical of alpine environments. Minimal details, sophisticated cladding and playful openings demonstrate the potential of contemporary architecture to fulfil its historic role of reinventing and reinterpreting tradition, even in the most delicate, natural, and historical contexts.
43.Musealisation of the archaeological site “Domus and Episcopal Palace”, Aquileia, Giovanni Tortelli, Roberto Frassoni, 2018 / Restoration of the Plečnik House Museum, Maruša Zorec, Maša Živec, Matjaž Bolčina, 2013-15.
Museography in archaeological and historical contexts is another theme in contemporary architecture. The necessary conservative rigidity of historical sites overlaps with the task of exhibiting artefacts, critically and didactically organising collections and, last but not least, meeting the technical requirements of modern museums. The two examples associated here demonstrate the great vitality with which today’s studios respond to these challenges. While the intervention in Aquileia, on a small scale, works on the perception of levels and surfaces, the intervention in the Plečnik Museum is a complex spatial experience that dissects the old building, revealing its layers and interpreting its memory. Of particular interest is the work of Maruša Zorec, who for several years has proven herself to be a true master in this field.
44.Marzona Park, Verzegnis, 1989 / France Sušnik Library, Ravne na Koroškem, Maruša Zorec, Maša Živec, Ana Kučan, 2001-04
This diptych does not juxtapose architectures with similar functions, but reveals a thematic affinity between objects that are distant from each other. It is about the relational potential that abstraction possesses in relation to any context, whether historical or natural. Abstract geometries have the ability to establish, by opposition, a relational dialectic with the surrounding space. The sophisticated sculptures housed in Verzegnis are all “site specific”, designed for that specific place, and an interaction with it. The extension of the library works in the same way, with its irregular rhythm of Corten steel portals.
45.House Filiput, Mariano del Friuli, Alessio Princic, 1997-99 / House in Logatec, Aljoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič, 2012-16
Among the numerous villa-houses built in recent decades in both countries, we have chosen to propose these two projects for their unique relational dimension in relation to the contexts in which they are located. The Filiput house relates to an outdoor garden, while the Logatec house relates to a church. Rather than traditional linguistic contextualism, we see in these houses a refined spatial and conceptual contextualism.
46.XXIV May Square, Cormons, Boris Podrecca, 1990 / Tartini Square, Piran, Boris Podrecca, 1989
In the concluding diptych, the exhibition pays tribute to a leading exponent of the multi-ethnic culture of the border area. Boris Podrecca, a prominent figure in international contemporary architecture, is the protagonist of the redesign of the main squares in Cormons and Piran. The architect has resolutely tackled the historical fabric of the two cities and their spatiality. Respecting their irregularities, he has imposed new monumentality and new visual relationships in both cases. Also of considerable interest is the design of the street furniture (street lamps, fountains, benches, etc.), which contributes to the definition of a new order that is respectful, but not subject to historical preconceptions.
