Urban centre Ribnica

The vast majority of Slovenian settlements are experiencing their spatial development at the expense of the construction of shopping centres and establishments, neighbourhoods of individual residential houses and small blocks of flats, and the uncritical expansion of craft and warehouse zones. Although the scale of construction is wide and multifaceted, almost none of these developments is guaranteed to strengthen and expand public space. Public space in settlements is becoming increasingly porous, dispersed and commercialised. The construction of a cultural building is therefore one of the rare occasions when a new building not only enhances the cultural content of a place, but also has the power and potential to define public space.

The Ribnica Cultural, Sports and Intergenerational Centre, which was named “Urban centre” in a municipal competition during its construction, was designed and built according to the “design-build” principle. Aware of the risks inherent in such a design and construction method, the architects, in designing the competition proposal, focused first and foremost on the architectural elements that derive from the urban criterion, a criterion that could not be paralysed or even nullified by later optimizations in the implementation, even if they were to be made later. The central body of the building, defined by three distinct sections – a foyer with an auditorium, a stage tower and an intergenerational centre with several medium-sized and small spaces, is positioned in the cleared space of the centre of the building island in such a way as to open up a completely new public space running along the axis of the existing street with the meaningful name of ‘Prijateljev trg’ from the main post office on the south-east side to the larger open space next to the music school on the north-west side. The space terminates optically at the central entrance junction to the settlement of Ribnica. Such a layout is also important for the place because Ribnica does not really have a large public open space, even next to the main parish church in the centre of the settlement. As a counterpoint to the larger building mass of the Urban Centre, a smaller volume of the Sports Centre was also envisaged in the competition proposal phase, which has been abandoned for the time being in the course of coordination with the municipality.

The entire length of the new “promenade” opens onto a double-height foyer, from where one enters all the key spaces of the centre, which, by its dimension, orientation, openness and permeability, creates the so-called “living room” of the development. A space that is not only the foyer of the larger and smaller halls, but is also used for exhibitions, a café, organised talks and other events.

The undulating body of the building is largely wrapped in a wooden mesh veil. The artistic address of the wooden façade is, on the one hand, direct and directly addresses the artisanal tradition of Rybnik’s carpentry – as a form with which anyone can really identify; on the other hand, it also addresses us more subtly, as the unified envelope divides the building’s gauge into a more “classical” lower part and a wooden superstructure in close dialogue with the surrounding forest and hill panorama. The building is one of the largest in Ribnica in terms of its dimensions, yet it is located in a sensitive area close to the medieval core of the settlement, Ribnica Castle and the parish church. In this way, the building dominates the space not by its mass or contrasting image, but by its meaning and its inclusive role.

The interior of the building is also dominated by wood cladding in key areas, with different motifs depending on the acoustic requirements of the space. Through a single material design, this creates an interplay between the exterior and interior spaces. The Urban Centre Ribnica is an architectural work that redefines the urban space through its careful programmatic interpolation into the urban space, promotes urban development and reinforces the public and local identity.

The project was developed in close and constructive cooperation with EFEKT architecture.

Architecture by Matic Lašič, Matej Blenkuš, Tina Mikolič, Katja Cimperman, Matevž Gazvoda