Cultural and Administrative Centre of Ivančna Gorica

The satellite settlements of Ljubljana, which undoubtedly include Ivančna Gorica, chronically suffer from a lack of urban identity, as the construction of the city’s central functions has not kept pace with its population expansion. As a result, a relatively large number of inhabitants do not, in the vast majority, have adequate public space infrastructure to enable formal and informal socialising and identification with their home area. In addition to the economy, daily migration to a bigger city also removes much of the social diversity and quality. The Cultural and Administrative Centre is therefore an ideal opportunity to create a local centre with its exclusive public facilities, which should include not only dedicated areas but also informal and always accessible public spaces shared by all.

In the design of the centre of Ivančna Gorica, we therefore had as our most important goal the creation of a high-quality and human-scale open public space, which combines and links the programmes of the municipality, the library and the cultural halls. The available site presents a serious urban planning challenge due to its L-shape, which wraps around an existing restaurant in an older corner building.

The programme is divided into three longitudinal lamellae of similar design, forming a larger square with entrances to the library, the municipality and the cultural centre, and a summer stage for outdoor events. The Council Chamber is raised to the second floor and is designed as a tall, cube-shaped space with a basilical window rising from the floor. The administration building, which includes all municipal services in addition to the mayor’s office and the debate hall, is designed around a central multi-storey atrium with natural ceiling lighting. The high central space allows for a natural ventilation system for all office areas and night cooling for the entire building. It increases the visibility of the whole building and allows good and easy orientation of all visitors to the public service. The vertical lobby also provides access to the cultural hall. The library consists of a series of mezzanines that weave the spaces of bookshelves, reading rooms and other dedicated corners into a continuous, optically connected vertical series.

In addition to high-quality public open space, we also wanted to bring something t. i. more noble architectural spaces in the interiors of individual buildings, spaces of larger dimensions and more coherent proportions. The construction of the library in Grosuplje made us realise how important such spaces can be in strengthening the identification of local residents with their own institutions and environment. After all, the fundamental task of architecture is precisely to be able to connect its users to the space of their own dwelling.

Authors of the project: BLENKUŠ Matej, CIMPERMAN Katja, CVETREŽNIK Anja, VALENČIČ Grega,