Library Grosuplje
The reason once happily married couples split is often a younger woman. We might add, however, that it’s becoming increasingly common for women to fall for a younger man. Maybe we do this to recall some long forgotten beauty from the past; maybe just to look for once familiar spaces that have now become full with precious memories; or maybe just to treat our eyes.
It’s a similar story with old buildings that become too small, too old or unrepresentative of our understanding of contemporary living. They need a remake and a jewel, plastic surgery, or just new clothes. The extended building becomes an abstract mirror and takes part in the time-machine phenomenon.
previous photo:
architect: A-biro
project: library, Grosuplje, Slovenia
description: The original building represents the only quality 19th century architecture in Grosuplje (just outside Ljubljana). The red extension opens like an accordion and the new roof follows the rhythm of the old. The alternating of filled and glass vertical screens effects an openness of the library space towards a central city ambience. Deliberate details like the red colour of the shutters and this same colour used for the facade panels connect the old and the new in a mutual symbiosis. And although the new building is twice as big its unobtrusive appearance allows the old lady to dominate the space. This sensitive solution earned a Plečnik prize for 2006.
photo: Miran Kambič
Technical Faculty, Rijeka
architect: Randić-Turato
project: Technical Faculty, Rijeka, Croatia
description: The original purpose of the existing building of the Technical Faculty, built in the early 20th century, was a barracks. The big square inside the building complex served to line up the army. During the 60s it was reconstructed, adding a new complex for laboratories and offices on the north side of the facade. Recently the faculty needed more space for lecture rooms, cabinets and laboratories. The project team’s design uses simple materials like prefabricated concrete beams for the construction, copillit glass panels on the front and steel frames for the bridge which connects the two buildings; and it’s all covered with prefabricated sheet metal. Simply too simple not to catch our eye.
photo: Robert Leš
Research and Multimedia Centre, Vicenza
architect: Massimiliano Fuksas
project: Research and Multimedia Center, Bassano del Grappa (Vicenza), Italy
description: The famous Bortolo Nardini distillery has produced wine and grappa – the original Italian brandy – since 1779. In order to celebrate their 225th anniversary back in 2004 they moved for an enlargement project for the old distillery. The main aim was to fill their need for an auditorium in which all those interested in grappa could be welcomed and – not only during the distillation period (November – April) – could better understand the production process of Nardini Grappa and its long history through a series of films. Here the architect designed two worlds: one floats above a stainless steel lake and the other plunges into the earth. The first mimics two blobs and encloses the laboratories of the research centre; the second, submerged, accommodates an auditorium and a foyer. A drink back to the future.
photo: Maurizio Marcato
University for Further Education, Krems
architect: Feichtinger Architectes
project: University for Further Education, Krems, Austria
description: The location, on a slope between the voluminous old building and a romantic estate of villas among the vineyards (of which there are many in this wine-growing region of the Wachau), presented the challenge of connecting extremely heterogeneous contexts. Instead of exploiting the different heights of the site in the obvious way by embedding most of the building, Feichtinger used a striking composition of three parallel, broadly projecting volumes at the upper edge of the site to produce a situation that, in contrast to an underground ambiance, creates – even in its low-lying internal courtyards – a free, open and transparent ensemble of coolly self-assured educational buildings. A connecting wing parallel to the old buildings holds the three teeth of this comb together and uses a glazed bridge to link them to the former tobacco factory.
photo: Margherita Spiluttini
Author: Nataša Mrkonjič
