Promotion pavilion in Planica

One of the major goals of the construction of the Nordic Centre in Planica between 2011 and 2015 was to provide Slovenia with a suitable venue for the World Nordic Championships. With the successful candidature for 2023, this objective has been achieved.
The Alpine sports and organisational buildings, engineering facilities and infrastructure are designed on the scale of a normal international World Cup competition, where competitors typically compete in a small number of disciplines on related sports facilities and polygons. The main competition venue is thus moving from the common exit of the Olympic ski jumps, through the exit of the Goriška Brothers Aerodrome, to the running stadium next to the main facility. When one venue is active, the other two act as supporting logistical areas. However, when organising the World Championships, it is necessary to ensure the simultaneous, almost simultaneous, use of the ski jumping hills and the cross-country skiing stadium. It also significantly increases the number of rooms needed for the competing teams, for support staff, for media coverage of the event, as well as sponsor rooms for the organisation of side events.

The organisation of the venue was already defined in mid-2021, with key activities taking place in 2022 and the first months of 2023. A very large number of freight containers were delivered to the Alpine valley, filling practically all available empty spaces. The space has been completely transformed, both in character and design. The careful architectural design of all the buildings and structures of the Nordic Centre, in close harmony with the natural, landscape and cultural space at the entrance to the Triglav National Park, has been overwhelmed by the globalised structure of container lines, marker constructions and spatial barriers. A temporary transformation that surprised even us, the Planica designers, with its scope and appeal.

Slovenia, when bidding for the most important biennial Nordic skiing competition, set itself the ambitious task of setting an example of a sustainable approach to organising an international competition of global significance. The Strategic Council of the Championships has set sustainable mobility, careful waste management, the exclusive use of recyclable packaging and the recording of the carbon footprint of the whole event as key objectives. The sustainable organisation of the event was focused on the event itself, i.e. on all the activities that took place during the 13 days of the Championships.
However, an important opportunity was, in our opinion, overlooked in the organisation of the venue itself. The double transport (in and out of Slovenia) of an extremely large amount of containers and technology for the stands represents a major environmental burden and it is questionable whether it has been properly evaluated in the estimated carbon footprint of the Championships. The promotional pavilion of the Finnish company Stora Enso, the main sponsor of the World Cup, is therefore a bright exception to the environmental problem of temporary structures.

Stora Enso invited us to participate at the beginning of August 2022 with the idea of using materials that the company produces itself and that can be used for other constructions in Slovenia after the Championships. Their Slovenian partner, the Celje-based company CBD, took up the challenge with a commitment to dimension the pavilion structurally, prepare it technically, build it, then exhibit it and reuse the material. In reality, we had very little time to plan, starting from a starting point where the material constraints of type, dimension and process were a help rather than a hindrance. The repeating accordion structure unified all the roof and wall panels, ensuring good stability of the basic geometry both in cross-section and in plan, while capturing the “character” of the topography and dynamics of the site. The geometry of the pavilion is defined by a set of isosceles triangles with identical arms but different bases. Three basic materials are used, CLT panels for the roof and walls, glued LVL beams for the frames and thermally treated timber for the flooring and façade. By carefully positioning all three types of semi-finished timber, we have sought to highlight their architectural and constructional potential and to emphasise their structural consistency. The timber elements thus retain their production dimensions, and the joining technology is chosen to minimise drilling and edge damage to the material. The exception is the white painted wooden elements, which are specially shaped by CNC cutting and will not be reusable once the pavilion is decommissioned. We used them to design special structural joints, roof eaves and door details.

The pavilion is primarily used to showcase the company’s activities and organise side events. But more important than the latter is the fact that Stora Enso is aware that the most powerful communication tool is quality design, which, through realised architectural and engineering work, opens up a wide space for imagination in the use of their products.
That’s why we at abiro wonder what would happen if all the facilities needed to host the World Cup were designed in exactly the same way. Based on the pre-defined idea that the material delivered to Slovenia for the installation of the wooden containers after the end of the competition would be used for the future construction of multi-apartment buildings of the Republican or municipal housing funds. How much organisational, design and logistical preparation would have been required two years ago? How much greenhouse gas emissions would this reduce, both during the event and during the subsequent construction? What would such an operation mean in cost terms, in the short term, in the long term and taking into account the real price of_CO2 emissions? Above all, we hope that the Stora Pavilion can give us an example and confidence for all our future actions.

Authors Blenkuš Matej; Cimperman Katja