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The first system-prefabricated construction in Ljubljana is the blocks along Črtomirova street, designed by I. Arnautović in 1965 and completed five years later. Instead of a combination of different apartments in one building, themed blocks of studios, one-, two- and three-room apartments are lined up next to each other. From the outside, they are recognisable by the differently treated facades, on which two elements stand out; the common external corridors (north side of the one-bedroom apartment block) and large balconies (of the studio block). In both cases, they occupy the entire surface and form a light, honeycomb outer layer of objects.50 Despite their rigid orthogonal placement, the multi-apartment buildings create clearly defined external ambients and large central green areas. The layout of the ground floor apartments was a first attempt of “expanding” the interior living space into the external environment. The design features a halffloor level shift downwards and a pushed-back exterior green slope, resulting in private gardens within a public park.51
50. Ibid., 61. 51. The apartments are distinctly longitudinal, bilaterally oriented, with a centrally placed bathroom and kitchen. From the common outdoor balcony, the path leads past a less private dining area, past the sanitary core, to a completely private living room open to the quiet greenery. 52. Ivanšek, stanovanje in naselje.
Družina,
53. “Apartment for our conditions” - The intent was to coordinate sporadic post-war attempts at mass construction and adapt it to the changing needs of urbanisation, crowds, quality, comfort and hygiene standards. With its professional and didactic efforts, the exhibition marked the psychological change necessary to shift to quality, integrated housing neighbourhoods of the 1960s and 1970s.
Masha Tatalovič
The second half of the 50s and early 60s were a pioneering period of Slovene housing research. Studies sought, among other things, to address housing shortages and overcrowding. The identification of needs to be met by dwellings was carried out through surveys, observations, measurements and statistical data processing. In 1961, a survey of 195 dwellings of the Sava settlement was conducted.52 It was the first and only Slovene, and Yugoslav, survey of its kind, whose primary purpose was documentation and encouraging interest in new housing research. Since workers were paying contributions to housing funds, they were entitled to express certain requirements regarding new housing quality. Research results from the survey were used as guidelines for identifying ways of improvement and were especially valuable to the urban planners and municipality for the further development of the settlement - to supplement it with what is still missing. Furthermore, numerous congresses, exhibitions, and consultations were dedicated to the topic of housing, which shows strong state support for housing construction and the development of living culture. This was reflected in the 1956 national conference and exhibition “Apartment for Our Conditions”53 (slo. Stanovanje za naše razmere), followed by the aforementioned 1958 “Family and Household” exhibition in Zagreb. The turning point in housing construction was the mid-1960s, when, after previous experiments and, above all, theoretical research, the first major realisations of the “neighbourhood concept” took place.
The Yugoslav Dream
Opposite page: Figure 13: Sava high-rises, along Linhartova Street. Urban Plan (1958), B. Gvardijančič, M. Mihelič, Institute for Housing Construction. Built between 1958-62 (by GIP Gradis). Architecture: I. Arnautović, M. MiheličInvestor: Ljubljana Housing Institute Population in 1962: 8200 people - in 1,800 family flats, 46 studios, 278 single rooms - 3 single homes.
