SLOVENIAN ARCHITECTURE 1914–2014 THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL
SUPRE:ARCHITECTURE 7. 6. – 23. 11. 2014, PAVILION OF SLOVENIA AT THE
14TH INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION – LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
Edvard Ravnikar et. al., the Revolution Square complex (now the Republic Square), Ljubljana, Slovenia (1963-1983). Numerous activities of commerce, banking and culture are being united in a group of buildings, linked around a large square that is dominated by prismatic towers – a symbol of the Ljubljana Gate (Ljubljanska vrata). One of the foremost working concepts of a pedestrian precinct in Europe, completely integrated in the modern social and business life of the city.
Vladimir Ĺ ubic, NebotiÄ?nik (The Skyscraper), Ljubljana, Slovenia (1930-1933). A modern building in every respect (reinforced concrete construction, elevator, central heathing) considered to be one of the first multistory buildings in Europe at the time it was finished. Judging by the form, inspired with American examples. The commissioner, the Pension Fund wanted to manifest the bold aspirations of the Slovenian financial business by the tallest building in the city skyline.
SUPRE:COMPOSITE
Peter Krečič, 2014
SLOVENIAN ARCHITECTURE 1914–2014 World War I had begun in the summer of 1914 and shortly afterwards established itself at the Soča (Isonzo) Front, at the western border of Slovenian ethnic territory. It was in that time the Slovenes formed themselves as a modern nation, organizing their life with various cultural and language activities to catch up with other, further developed national communities in their direct neighbourhood. In other words, they succeeded in achieving a level of institutional structure, maybe somewhat lacking in diversity when compared to others, but nonetheless a firm structure that defines a modern nation. They have set their political goals and had a developed political party life, but the very notion of how they established the outset of any kind of cultural activity especially due to first-class artists, painters, architects, musicians, writers and many others was of no lesser importance.
Matija Bevk, Aljoša Dekleva, Tina Gregorič, Rok Oman, Vasa J. Perović, Jurij Sadar, Špela Videčnik and Boštjan Vuga; Cultural Centre of European Space Technologies, Vitanje, Slovenia, 2012
Shortly thereafter, this starting point was followed by initiatives for a formal
was mainly filled with sculptures, among which special attention was cast by the hung,
institutionalization of these activities through professional associations like the movement
“weightless” sculptures and collages in the manner of geometrical abstraction; drawings,
for a National Gallery and, finally, the initiative to establish a Slovenian university in
linocuts, designed usable objects and some more architectural designs. Černigoj only
Ljubljana. However, that was to happen only after the war, in a new state context of
needed one more year to take all the latest architectural drafts and use them to design
the first Yugoslavia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians. From the turn of the
his best and most visionary work, the Architectonic Study, also named “Teater masse”, a
century to the beginning of the war, especially the achievements of Slovenian painters
tower with light inscriptions that levitates over a tightly packed crowd. The last act in the
played the foremost part. They began to create in the then current impressionism, but
Slovenian historical avant-garde unravelled in Berlin, with a special issue of the magazine
some of them had become keen on the spirit of expressionism even before the war and in
Der Sturm in January 1929, where Ferdo Delak, Černigoj’s collaborator and editor of the
particular during and after the war. The younger generation of painters suffered through
avant-garde magazine Tank, and Heinz Luedecke, a German critic, presented the entire
the atrocities of near and far frontlines directly and, with rare exceptions, stuck to typical
Slovenian avant-garde scene. After that, the movement slowly ceased to exist.
expressionist topics, therefore making adequate changes in formal language. Gradually,
A look at the development of Slovenian architecture in this period shows us a different
the public embraced this modernist idiom, only just began to understand impressionism,
picture. The production of architecture in the 19th century had come to a relatively long
and subsequently needed to face a more radical visual expression, not only an expressionist
standstill and offered no distinguishing creative personalities but also some outstanding
one – the constructivist art avant-garde was already knocking at the door. Avgust
achievements, especially in the Trieste architecture. At the turn of the century, a quality
Černigoj from Trieste (Slo.: Trst) had experienced the Weimar Bauhaus and set up his First
change came also for this type of art. In the spring of 1895, Ljubljana was shook by an
Constructivist Exhibition in Ljubljana, at the gymnasium of Technical High School, in the
earthquake, which caused many buildings to be severely damaged. The authorities,
late summer of 1924. His constructivist sculptures, reliefs and a series of architectural
particularly due to an agile and politically proficient mayor Ivan Hribar, put the earthquake
models that revealed completely new formal possibilities in architecture, above all with
to good use for the citizens as well as the entire country. They acquired a modern urban
the notion of a tall building, a skyscraper, at that time a big novelty in Europe, surprised
plan, provided by the young and promising architect Maks Fabiani, a compatriot from the
the audience, even the expert critique. His ideas met with a more favourable reception of
Slovenian Karst (Slo.: Kras) region and the “monarchy’s architect”, as he is aptly named by the
young, educated people, politically inclining towards the left. This had provoked the rightist
architectural historian Marko Pozzetto. Among many Austrian, Czech and native architects
authority even further in their search for even the slightest reason to induce repressive
who had been building all over Ljubljana with haste, Fabiani contributed with a series of
action – and with Černigoj, they found it swiftly. In the early autumn of 1925, the police
buildings that brought the spirit of modern times into an atmosphere of late historism and
banished him from Ljubljana. Černigoj continued to work in his native Trieste and drew
secession, particularly with the so-called reduction of stylistic elements in favour of modern
some of Trieste’s futurists as well as some young Slovenian artists to his circle. After a
expression which would be achieved both through an original use of planar composition and
failed attempt to organize a private, Bauhaus-inspired school in the autumn of 1927, they
the use of materials like visible iron. His somewhat younger contemporary Jože Plečnik, one
performed as a condensed group under the name Trieste Constructivist Group and set
of Otto Wagner’s best students, also desired to add his share to the construction of a new,
up their own special space within the exhibition of the Fine Arts Syndicate and the Arts
modern Ljubljana, but was rejected. Not only did he then seek his chance in Vienna – he
Club: a constructivist department with a number of their works. This integral art cabinet
also made very good use of it. His Zacherl Palace (1903–1905) indicated new aesthetic
possibilities, added to the modern expression by a concrete skeleton and a suspended façade.
modernist generation formed itself partially from Vurnik’s students, partially from Plečnik’s
With the Church of the Holy Spirit in the working-classes suburbia Ottakring (1910–1912),
dissidents and partially from a group of people educated abroad. Following the concepts
he went even further. In the crypt and the upper part of the church, he demonstrated new
of German Bauhaus, Russian revolutionary architectural avant-garde and above all, Le
architectural possibilities enabled by an original structuring of the concrete construction.
Corbusier and his CIAM, they wanted to establish an effective counterpart to Plečnik’s
However, real opportunities arose with his homecoming of 1921. Ivan Vurnik, an architect
supposedly obsolete views of architecture and such strivings led to the publishing of the
and founder of the architecture department at the newly formed University of Ljubljana’s
magazine Architecture (Slo.: Arhitektura, 1931–1934). Their efforts were not in vain as they
Technical Faculty, appointed him as a professor, which enabled Plečnik to add his personal
soon started to plan and accomplish numerous contemporary buildings in Ljubljana as well
signature to the new and modern Ljubljana in a relatively short time. In the late twenties,
as Maribor, Murska Sobota, Kranj, Jesenice and elsewhere, although nobody could compare
he accomplished his first urban plan and suggested the Slovene’s capital to be the New
with Plečnik in terms of creative potency. Moreover, they established a parallel to Plečnik’s
Athens. From 1926 to the beginning of World War II in 1941, he designed a system of city
exceptional quality in reforming, first of all, the image of the Old Ljubljana; they created
axes with special attention to the Old Ljubljana. He devised a land axis extending from his
a new, modern business and residential axis by the city’s main traffic artery, the former
house in Trnovo suburbia, crossing the centrally placed Congress Square (Slo.: Kongresni
Roman Cardo Maximus, with a dominant skyscraper structure, but it was designed and
trg) with Zvezda Park and ending in a newly conceived South Square (Slo.: Južni trg). The
carried out by the architect Vladimir Šubic – considering architectural standards, we could
river Ljubljanica water axis follows the old city’s water channel and is somewhat parallel
place him somewhere between Plečnik and the modernists – who was not considered to
to the land axis. In relation to both axes, he put some square axes and thus created a
be an orthodox modernist. The Ljubljana Skyscraper (1930–1933) is a good example of this
grid for his later architecture. In his newly formed city inventory, Ljubljana Castle is the
statement. A towering building with the accompanying lower block of flats is, with respect
Acropolis, the valedictory complex of Žale is the Necropolis, the Congress Square is the
to design and realization, closer to modernism in terms of concrete construction and then
Agora, the Market halls are the Stoa, the Church of St. Francis in Šiška is a symbolic new
again closer to the concepts of Fabiani and Plečnik in terms of the reduced use of plastic
temple, the National and University Library is a Hellenistic library … His architecture in the
construction art and a taste for decorative detail.
1920’s is characterized by a special variant of expressionism, masked with some originally
World War II was raging on the territory of the first Yugoslavia between 1941 and
reshaped classical elements of architecture – a good example is to be found in the Church
1945; a new Yugoslavia was formed out of the partisan resistance against Italian, German
of the Assumption in Bogojina (1925–1926) – but in the 1930’s a more classical, yet still
and Hungarian occupying forces, which was successfully led by Yugoslav communists on
innovative formal technique takes the foreground. At first, Vurnik supported the concept of
the allies’ side. At first, the revolutionary communist regime relied largely on the Soviet
national architecture that would voice itself through special colours and morphology, but
Union and – apart from political and economic doctrine – with no critical distance, adopted
today we see this concept as a specific version of declarative abundance in architectural
some ways of forming politics even in matters of art, architecture and culture as a whole.
expressionism. Amid the 1920’s, he also became an advocate of modernism, especially in
Slovenia expanded its national territory in the new Yugoslavia and became one of the six
urban planning, which he himself defined as a social activity as opposing to Plečnik, who
Yugoslav people’s republics. In the first post-war years, Social Realism dominated art and
consistently thought of it as art. Vurnik was the author of some early functionalist buildings;
architecture accordingly; it regulated an exact choice of subject and style for painters and
nevertheless, he remained a man of rather moderate solutions. For all these reasons, the
sculptors; it demanded an architecture of monumental proportion that would adapt itself to
new assignments, mainly noteworthy public buildings, whereas it was still allowed to use
motif of two tall multistory buildings at the edge of a monumental platform along with a
a pre-war modernist manner in industrial and residential architecture, provided of course
business object at the square’s eastern side. Construction time was prolonged until 1983
there was a proper addition of some elements from this new style’s inventory. Regardless
and experienced many changes like the lowering of both towers; the greatest change, of
to the Cominform dispute with the Soviets that caused Yugoslavia to take a distance
course, was the instalment of Cankar Cultural Centre (Slo.: Cankarjev dom), a large cultural
from the Eastern Bloc, architects in Slovenia were beginning to strive for a greater artistic
centre in the SW part of the complex (finished in 1983). The integral and vast complex,
(architectural) autonomy and somehow managed to succeed until 1952. If the Yugoslav
the first successful implementation of a pedestrian precinct concept, excels in numerous
and with it, the Slovenian Communist Party refused to exert direct influence on culturally
original techniques of designing individual buildings – and between them, intimate
engaged artists, they nonetheless reserved an utter right to set the boundaries of what is
ambiences, especially in connection to the nearby historical architecture – as well as large
allowed in culture. Social Realism was therefore replaced by socialist aestheticism, which
dynamic forms. For all these reasons, its quality may well define the late modernist stage
certainly did leave the door of free creativity wide open, but also concealed the line of what
of Slovenian post-war architecture. Ravnikar brought up several generations of architects
the Party’s good humour considers as acceptable.
who, each in his own manner, developed architectural assignments and techniques,
The Ljubljana School of Architecture, imbued with fresh forces in the professors’
following their teacher’s examples; spanning from rigorous rationalist construction and
collective, mainly coming from the Plečnik seminar, stood in the front ranks of the artistic
dynamic building cases to the almost proper organic shaping of architectural building mass
fight for (architectural) autonomy. Edvard Ravnikar and Edo Mihevc eclipsed Plečnik and
and, simultaneously, a total reaffirmation of symbolic tasks, displayed through a series
Vurnik and assumed the school’s leading role. Ravnikar deemed it very important for
of architectural plans by Marko Mušič: the Kolašin Memorial Home (Montenegro, 1970–
his ambitions as a teacher and architect to have worked in the studio of Le Corbusier in
1975), the Church of the Incarnation of Christ in Ljubljana (1980–1985) and ultimately –
Paris just before the war. He rather quickly outgrew the dictate of monumentalism for
the Teharje Memorial Park (1995–2011).
large-scale tasks in Belgrade such as the plans for the New Belgrade (1947) or for some
Edo Mihevc was a builder of large factory buildings, also known as “cathedrals of
new government institutions’ buildings in Ljubljana. But even the strict urban planning
labour”, in the first post-war years. In the Ljubljana city district of Šiška, he set up large
teachings of the CIAM group that influenced his designs for Nova Gorica (1947–1949)
machine halls for the Litostroj heavy industry (1946–1963), some accompanying blocks
soon caused him to doubt, soften and to set a new trail. In addition to the common study of
of flats and society’s premises for workers. He was the author of the first block of flats
architecture, he started to acquaint the students with a modern perspective of industrial
inspired with Le Corbusier’s Marseille block of flats, this time in Ljubljana’s city centre
and graphic design in his seminar and addressed the public through the magazine Architect
(1955–1957), and the first skeleton construction of a business multistory building with
(Slo.: Arhitekt; first issued in 1951). He abandoned the rigid form of a modernist cube block
a prefabricated aluminium façade coating (Metalka, 1959–1963). Nevertheless, his
in architectural design, made the walls and roof surfaces in objects more dynamic, allowed
greatest success was the architecture of numerous tourist centres and settlements on
the use of ornaments in cast concrete and arrived at an entirely new administrative building
the Slovenian coast. Large hotels, apartment houses, schools and even factories were
design; this included a “solemn tent” for the grand council chamber of the community
outfitted with modernized elements of traditional Mediterranean architecture and
building in Kranj (1958–1960). Just as the construction works in Kranj were ending, he won
designed to fit in successfully with the original structures. In addition, he created the
the competition for the arrangement of the Revolution Square in Ljubljana; he conceived a
special and original “Mediterranean matrix” that defied the banal modernist schemes of
architecture and urban planning efficiently. The best demonstration of his outstanding
the template vocabulary of leading postmodernists. The most orthodox stance of such
quality and a model of dealing with delicate ambiences like the Adriatic coast was to be
architectural concept was manifested in the construction of a new community building in
found in small tourist house settlements, surrounded by a distinctive littoral vegetation.
Sežana (1977–1979) and in the subsequent projects of the architect group Kras, led by
The Holiday settlement in Lucija near Portorož (1959–1962) is considered as one of such
Vojteh Ravnikar. Due to an essential change in the way past achievements of European
highly successful settlements.
modernism were evaluated, the global expert public had taken more and more interest
At the zenith of Slovenian post-war architecture in the 1960’s, there was a new avant-
in the work of Plečnik, above all in Ljubljana – gradually and most importantly owing to
garde movement emerging from closed artistic circles – OHO, a conceptualist neo-avant-
an important presentation at the Georges Pompidou cultural centre in Paris in 1986, he
garde (1966–1971). Using their visual poetry and all sorts of conceptual visual actions in
earned his legitimate place among the top architects in the first half of the 20th century.
closed gallery spaces and also outdoors, they have set the guidelines for a fundamental
In a short period, Slovenian architects renounced the postmodernist conventionality
conceptual research in the future that paved the way for art installations, body art and
and clung to solid rationalist concepts when they designed a newly adopted conception
land art. They provoked the government with their daring public appearances; the invisible,
of structural organism. A good example of this new developmental stage of “post-
Party-defined limits of what is allowed suddenly became visible. The authorities banned
postmodernism” is the Chamber of Commerce (Slo.: Gospodarska zbornica) building in
some of the announced artistic actions, but somehow the movement itself was exhausted
Ljubljana, designed by the Sadar+Vuga architects bureau (constructed 1996–1999).
or mutated to various other forms of artistic and social action. Their efforts produced a
On the other hand, the excellent object of the Slovenian state tax administration by the
new awareness of responsible action in a natural environment and the beginnings of an
architect Andrej Černigoj and associates denotes a successful example of the so-called
organised ecology movement.
deconstructivism (2000). These bold new constructions, under the circumstances in
On the other hand, however – apart from a short and failed attempt of Edvard Ravnikar
Slovenia best summarized in the engineering architecture of bridges – Peter Gabrijelčič
to implement the so-called “B course” study of industrial and graphic design, based on
being its most noteworthy exponent, especially in his ultimate achievement: the
elementary visual arts theory, to the School of Architecture in 1960 – architecture produced
suspension bridge over the river Sava in Belgrade (2011) – confirm a rationalist, even
neither the activities aiming for experiment in art nor an attempt to deepen the knowledge
constructivist orientation. Consequently, the new minimalism is by no coincidence the
or pass critical judgment on existing experience in design and its realization. At the end of
prevalent central orientation in the first years of the new century. It is embodied in some
the 1970’s and the beginning of 1980’s, facing no noteworthy public discussion, architects
excellent architectural associations: Bevk Perović architects, Dekleva Gregorič architects,
joined the overall expression of discontent with shallow formalism in the late modernism,
Ofis architects, Sadar+Vuga architects (the four produced a joint design for the Cultural
and along with younger generations of architects, they started to follow the ideology
Centre of European Space Technologies building in 2012), Enota, Zadravec architects
of a new postmodernist paradigm in urban planning and architecture. Besides the once
and some others, all of them achieving international recognition. Among the younger
again awakened passion towards decoration and the rediscovery of Plečnik’s postulates
generations, we may not find formal traces of the Ljubljana School of Architecture with
on architecture and design, Slovenian version of this course preserved a basic element
Plečnik, Vurnik, Ravnikar and the later; this is maintained through other standards like
of rationalism and reverted to a more compact, limited structural organism; every now
the imperative of originality, utter devotion to architecture and perfection in realization.
and then, they also resorted to the eminent quotes of postmodernist design, taken from
A modest range of practical means in Slovenia still prevents them, however, from using
exciting new architectural techniques that have been globally confirmed as exceptional in
Marjetica Potrč who explored the effects of artistic interventions in the already shaped
the last two decades and propelled by unlimited technological and financial possibilities.
architectural spaces. In addition, Marko Peljhan and Jurij Krpan designed and executed the
Since the early 1980’s, different avant-garde groups emerged in Slovenia. We could
Makrolab (2004), a laboratory architecture defining a new, artistic space for science. The
describe them as the third, postmodernist avant-garde, yet they declared themselves as
art theory that emerged from the multiple faces of retro-garde activity, especially when
the retro-garde. Their line of activities ranged from music, theatre, fine arts, design, even
addressing science, is just about to grab the future opportunities – these claims are fully
architecture and, similar to the group from the 1960’s, they provoked the governing Party
legitimate, since this art knows more about modern “hard science” than this very science
structure. With the so-called “poster affair” in 1987, when the Yugoslav Federal Youth
knows about art.
Organization confirmed the proposed New Collectivism’s official poster and script for the so-called Tito Baton (Slo.: Titova štafeta) event and later on recognized a Nazi pedigree in the poster’s template, a scandal broke out. The authorities’ time ran out and the announced measures against the authors were never set in motion. Once again, a thin red line of the politically permissible was drawn, but young artists and the new, democratically oriented groups ignored it. Yugoslavia started to break up, fell into the clutches of a bloody civil war and eventually dissolved in the early 1990’s. The lasting development of the last avant-garde in Slovenia, the retro-garde, established a view to observe two evolutional stages. In the first period, their actions pursued the spirit of examining and toying with different artistic processes, derived from domestic and foreign avant-garde movements. In the second period, they began to explore the possibilities for a theatrical expression in extreme conditions – space and weightlessness. A combination of the Černigoj cabinet with hung, “weightless” abstract objects, and the Herman Potočnik Noordung book dealing with the problems of space travel (1928) inspired Dragan Živadinov, Miha Turšič and Dunja Zupančič for numerous artistic actions, chiefly tending to attempt and create art in the state of weightlessness. This postgravity art project leads us to the universal concept of space culturalization. Besides the scientific, commercial and military aspects of orbital stations’ use, the time has come to introduce the space programmes with a cultural dimension. Therefore, not coincidentally, regardless of their activity in or out of the retro-garde – this very generation has shown great interest in science and its modes of operation. Moreover, they explored the options of introducing it into the artistic way of thinking. Here we should mention
While the closer reaches of space are quite populated already, the conditions for
THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL – SUPRE:ARCHITECTURE | 14th International
human life there remain unsuitable, and without adequate devices and objects even
Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, the Slovenian Pavilion | 7. 6. – 23. 11. 2014
deadly. The material manifestation of human presence in space is architecture at its most
| Created by: Miha Turšič, Dragan Živadinov | Co-creators: Dunja Zupančič, Špela
fundamental: as an articulation of surroundings and as a functional form of habitation in
Petrič, Peter Krečič, Tanya N. Zhelnina | Curator: Jurij Krpan | Commissioners:
weightlessness.
Miha Turšič (KSEVT), Maja Ivanič (DESSA Gallery) | Assistance: Vera Vilardebo Sacchetti, Robertina Šebjanič, Jerneja Rebernak | Cooperators: Bevk-Perović
The history of appropriating space has always been a history of architecture, too,
Architects, Dekleva-Gregorič Architects, Ofis Architects, Sadar+Vuga
most prominently in connection with scientific and technological achievements. One
Architects, Blaž Šef, Gregor Novaković (3Data) | Exhibition construction: OPL,
of the pioneers of space architecture was the Slovenian engineer HERMAN POTOČNIK
Altos | Production: KSEVT | Co-production: DESSA Gallery, Ljubljana Architects
NOORDUNG, who in his 1928 book THE PROBLEM OF SPACE TRAVEL offered a series of
Association | Project supported by: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of
technological solutions for human survival in orbit. Noordung’s quest echoes that of the
Slovenia; Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Star City; La Biennale Di
modernists and avant-gardists of the early 20th century – the search for a new artistic
Venezia | Sponsors: AplusA Gallery, Pinacoteca ManfrediNIana, Municipality
expression, which coincided with the invention of a new social order and a new man
of Vitanje, SPIRIT Slovenia, Casino and Hotels HIT, Zlati Grič, GoOpti
altogether. In this context, space enables a whole new view of art and society. For any additional information please contact us at PR@KSEVT.EU. If at first it seemed as if these artistic breakthroughs and their utopianism were aiming for the future, today – with space exploration in full swing – they can be seen as contemporary. At the 14th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, THE SLOVENIAN PAVILION, curated by the CULTURAL CENTRE OF EUROPEAN SPACE TECHNOLOGIES (KSEVT), looks at past scientific and artistic space research as diverse preliminary efforts of space culturalization. While considering the architectural, artistic and scientific pioneers of space culturalization, the Pavilion defines a course for the next epoch of life outside the Earth – an expansion of life in space to all dimensions that befit a civilization in terms of concept and experience. Architecture for space – SUPRE:HUMAN, SUPRE:LIVING and SUPRE:COMPOSITE – is that very civilization’s first material harbinger.
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Avgust Černigoj, Eduardo Stepančič, Giorgio Carmelich in Josip Vlah, TRIESTE CONSTRUCTIVISTIC CABINET, Trieste (1927). For the first time they have not tried to exhibit the objects, but they let them levitate from the ceiling on transparent strings. With this the objects lost their Earth-bound gravity and with this, their spiritual moment was heightened.