The geometry of global and local economies intertwined in a combination of concrete and wood
The economic boom of the first decade of the 21st century. In the last century, in close connection with an expansive and poorly controlled spatial policy of expansion of production and craft areas in medium-sized settlements along motorways and regional arteries, it has left irreversible consequences on the landscape, often at the expense of good quality agricultural land. The uncritical siting of large-scale buildings coincides with a radical change in the typology of production facilities. They are losing their character as buildings for people to work in quality, based on optimisation of construction and energy efficiency. They are increasingly turning into box-like cans without rhythm, articulated construction, contact with the environment and relationship to the context. We are convinced that the modern industrial building typology has lost touch with the space as a whole, both urbanistically and architecturally.
At the time of the relocation of the Japanese company Yaskawa to Kočevje, the municipality of Ribnica released the conditions for the construction of production facilities in all the zoning units selected for this purpose. In the immediate vicinity of the Ribnica Castle, there is a production and craft zone surrounded by a residential neighbourhood, the Bistrica River and the nearby castle park. Aware of the sensitivity of the location and the loose urban planning conditions, where Leokom has had its premises for several decades, a new production office building was designed in close collaboration between the client and the architects. The core of the building body is the central production hall, technically constructed of reinforced concrete triple-layer precast wall elements and prestressed hollow-core panels. The rhythmically articulated and broken office wing, where the skeletal concrete and timber structure is intertwined, is leaning against the basic block.
The change of wall and façade material interacts more precisely with the castle park and the surrounding residential buildings. On the top floor, over the production part of the building, there is a large multi-purpose space covered with a multi-pitched roof, which flattens out to a flat roof towards the technical part of the building. The complex roof design, which combines both cubic and broken geometry, symbolically unites the two materially articulated parts of the building into a single object. The office part is completely enclosed by a curtain wall made of wooden slats, which at the same time provide effective shading and uniformity of the façade skin. The duality of the design is a representation of the enigmatic duality of mechanics and man, of the global and the local, and of the universal and the local – relationships that contemporary economy and economics must also confront.
It is clear to all of us who were actively involved in the planning process that it would have been simpler, quicker and, above all, cheaper to erect a typical production facility on this site, which would have stood out from the city’s silhouette in terms of content, form and expression. This is why this project is in fact a model of sensible, sustainable and sustainable space management, which prioritises long-term consequences over short-term benefits.
Authors Blenkuš Matej; Cimperman Katja; Klobčar David; Valenčič Grega; Železnik Mateja
| Photographer: | Kambič Miran |
| Building structures: | Žvan Uroš; Avguštin Aleš |
| Other colleagues: | Blažek Peter; Lisec Mitja |
| Contractor: | Lesoteka, d.o.o.; Leokom, d.o.o.; PGM Hotič, d.o.o. |
