Nuk 2

location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

program: national and university library

 
dates: 2012

data: total built area 20.000 m2 

 

architect: waltritsch a+u, Arch. Dimitri Waltritsch Trieste, Italy 

 

in partnership with Guarnieri Architects, Arch. Piero Ongaro, Arup Italia

 
Team: Dimitri Waltritsch with  Ilaria Sagrati.

 

The new national library is built on top of an important archaeological site at the edge of the capital's historical hart. This condition opens up new opportunities to qualify the area as the new binder between several university buildings, as well as between different parts of the city: a pivot of the urban context, the missing “tessera” of the urban mosaic of this wonderful part of Ljubljana. The project act as a setting, which emphasises the importance of the ancient past of the city, acts as an active urban connecting platform, and produces a cultural icon of the 21st century. The building is very permeable at the street level, acting as an urban connector (the urban room) between different parts. Library facilities start at higher levels, taking the shape of a three headed structure in plan. Floors are slowly enlarging their surface while growing in height, leaving space for a central indoor patio as well. The library volume is treated as a solid mass strengthening its presence as a public building in the wider urban context. The mass of the stack of library floors is also sufficiently detached from the level of the archaeological site so not to compete with it. The structure is designed to maintain the archaeological presences of the site and the existing path axes which are the “Cardo” and the “Decumano”, interfering as less as possible with the archaeology remains by means of V shaped columns. The building’s structure on top, characterized by cantilever portions, has been design including a series of transfer structures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images and text © D. Waltritsch. Use only by permission.