Within international Trimo Urban Crash competition, which awards the most innovative and creative ideas from students of architecture, Trimo this year received 147 projects from 17 countries. The winning solution for a cultural stage is a sculpture-like form, a unity without a defined beginning and end and belongs to two architects from Poland, namely Jan Ledwon and Alicja Chola. This cultural stage was chosen for the best idea for the realization in Metelkova mesto in Ljubljana. It was set up last week in one of the graffiti – painted courtyards. The object called “The White Dancer” is coloured white but indicates that it can be covered with graffiti after a period of time, integrating into its surrounding even better.
Miloš Florijancic, competition curator, architect and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Ljubljana, explained the jury was looking for a “subject” rather than an object, evaluating corresponding content, relation to place, adequate body, flashing, and technical and safety criteria. At the end of the competition he added: “We found “the white dancer”, which closely corresponded to the criteria and challenges its surroundings with its non-colour. We decided it was the best project. From here on nothing is fixed, the second part of the competition is open, and the question is – in what way will the location absorb its new member?”
Tomaž Furlan, representative of Metelkova mesto, offers: »I do not perceive the chosen object as some sort of a gift to Metelkova, but as a new member, a new material that will eventually change in accordance with Metelkova rules. The object itself represents an interesting provocation – I hope it will open a dialogue in the future.«
Stevan Tesic, architect and sculptor working in-cooperation at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, offers: “The concept of the competition included a clearly expressed dichotomy, a formaltechnical element in conformity with the Trimo company’s philosophy; and a socialcommunicative element, interactive and heterogeneous in its relation to the existing (perhaps also to the future) physiognomy of such a location as Metelkova. The majority of student proposals focused, to a different extent, on exploring the relationship between said aspects, considering technical viability, use of the object, and its relationship with its surrounding. The awarded projects were those which clearly defined the moment in which the object clearly and deliberately forms and allows the process of interaction without defining this process in advance. These interactions are understood as a gradual continuation, a reaction to the form through time. The reaction is not only communicative in the visual sense (graffiti) but eventually also physical, spatial thanks to the form’s interaction with the Metelkova people.”
Posted by: Eva Prelovšek
