OFIS ARHITEKTI, INTERTWINING AND TRANSPARENCY
Rok
Oman and Špela Videčnik, founders of the OFIS arhitekti firm based in
Ljubljana, designed this interesting renovation by bringing together original bourgeois
features, historical layers, and the contemporary needs of an early
twentieth-century house in the old city centre of the Slovenian capital, where
Roman walls coexist with remnants of bourgeois life from the early modern
period, Plečnik's architectural work from the interwar period, and contemporary
re-readings.
The house,
an elegant example of bourgeois life in Central Europe built in the early
1920s, underwent numerous alterations due to the political and social aftermath
of the postwar period, when functionalist and socialist architecture replaced its
bourgeois counterpart.
The
renovation and structural reinforcement work has enabled these traces of the
past to be preserved by integrating them into a contemporary project and extending
the house into the garden through two transparent pavilions, which project it
into a more permeable urban landscape. Designed
as a counterpoint to the old house and carefully positioned in relation to the house
and its garden, the two new pavilions feature lightweight interwoven
structures, made of 2 cm circular steel sections.
Interwoven
horizontally and vertically, the sections create the feeling of a three-dimensional
wireframe: a spatial mesh that shapes the structure through rhythm, layering
and transparency rather than solid walls. Their texture simultaneously reveals
and conceals: from certain viewpoints, the density of these section filters the
gaze, creating veiled and semi-private settings, while from other positions the
pavilions open up to allow seamless views of the garden.
One
pavilion is directly connected to the house’s living quarters extending the
interior into the garden. The second stands on the site of the old garden
pavilion, bringing the past back to life in a very contemporary way. This
means the house both bears testimony to history and creates a framework for
contemporary life – a dialogue across time that remains deeply rooted in the
identity of Mirje, while simultaneously opening up to future possibilities.
Client: private; Project: OFIS-Rok
Oman, Špela Videčnik; Project team:
Rok Dolinšek, Janez Martinčič, Andrej Gregorič, Marieke Van Dorpe,
Vladyslav Bondarenko, Nada Kodela; Main contractor: Zidarstvo Moste in Gradbeništvo Jusufi; Building joinery contractor: Mizarstvo Ovsenik; Interior contractor - furniture:
Ambius; HVAC contractor:
Vavtar inženiring; Electricity contractor:
Elektro Zavodnik; Lightning:
Arcadia; Ceiling ornament:
TH Hamler; Unique pottery:
Pia Mršek; Unique lighting:
Tilen Sepič; Fireplace contractor: Kamini Hrovat. Photo@Tomaz-Gregoric
