Hasta La Ideas

Slovenian firm Svet Vmes Architects has converted the unused entrance of a school in Ljubljana into an undulating green lounge featuring spotty walls and big cushions (+ slideshow).

The 144 year-old grammar school, one of the oldest in the city, was built with two entrances that were originally used to separate girls and boys entering the building.

Svet Vmes Architects was tasked with transforming the defunct second entrance into a space where students can relax and socialise, which they named School Landscape.

The architects retained existing mouldings and architraves, but printed a dissolving pattern of green polka-dots on the lower half of the walls.

Wavy green benches used for lounging and sliding run along the side walls and are covered with large squishy cushions, while a staircase is sandwiched in between.

“The enclosure is formed with wavy bands with different gradients of one material,” said the architects. “With this element we broke the hard, uneven space and transformed it into a new, soft, single space.”

A projector screen, loudspeakers and WiFi were also installed so students can watch movies and study in the space.

Photography is by Matevž Paternoster and Agencija Umer.

Here’s a project description from Svet Vmes:

School Landscape

Ledina is one of the oldest grammar schools in Ljubljana. It has operated for 144 years. The school plan has a characteristic ‘U’ shape, with two main entrances that were once used as separate entrances – for boys and girls. Due to safety reasons only one is in use today, while the second one is closed and has no function.

The idea was to create a new ‘semi-public’ school space for leisure activities of students during recess, before and after school. The enclosure is formed with wavy bands with different gradients of one material. With this element we broke the hard, uneven space and transformed it into a new, soft, single space.

As internet is indispensable in everyday life of pupils, the room has wireless internet, loudspeakers and a projector to ensure a more relaxed ambience. The place becomes a multi used school landscape where students can rest, socialise, watch movies, get information, listen to music, and organise lectures or performances by school DJs.

Interior and graphic design: SVET VMES Jure Hrovat, m.i.a., Ana Kosi, u.d.i.a., Ana Krec, m.i.a., Tina Rome, m.i.a.
Wallpaper printing: Neoprint d.o.o.
Construction works: GP KB gradbeništvo d.o.o.
Rubber waves: INTERFLOORING d.o.o., talne obloge, inženiring, interier
Carpenter: Mizarstvo Meznaric d.o.o.
Investor: Ledina Grammar School
Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Year of completion: 2013

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replaces an old school entrance appeared first on Dezeen.

The students and tutor of an architecture workshop in Ljubljana have built a wedge-shaped wooden pavilion containing a tiny pool of water and logs acting as stepping stones.

Located in a riverside park, the Water Temple has a wide, triangular set of steps leading to a narrow entrance behind a wooden sliding door.

The door leads to a walled interior space containing a pool of shallow water and logs which form stepping stones.

Architect Kieran Donnellan and a group of MEDS students designed and built the pavilion in August this year.

Last year we featured a seaside chapel in Istanbul designed by MEDS students with Donnellan and two of his fellow graduates.

“I’ve found that by using simple religious typologies as references, the team has a certain atmosphere and scale of spatial complexity in mind to guide them,” says Donnellan. “They help me to ensure that we build something with a strong spatial atmosphere, and that we do not simply build for the sake of building.”

Both the chapel and the water temple are “single cell spaces” with an exaggerated entrance area, he adds. “The exaggeration allows the small structures to take on a sense of scale and make an impact much grander than their modest volumes.”

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Photographs are by Kieran Donnellan.

Here’s some more information from Donnellan:

This temporary exhibition pavilion was built during the MEDS, Meeting of Design Students, in Ljubljana during August 2012. It was a collaboration by an interdisciplinary team of 15 students and young graduates from the MEDS community and 2 representatives of project sponsor DamaHaus, a Slovenian construction firm. The team was led by Irish tutor Kieran Donnellan and the name of the pavilion relates to aspects of its spatial configuration and use.

The pavilion is a non-’white wall’ exhibition space whose character is meant to inspire exhibits of both existing and new work, relating to the concept that shaped the pavilion. The concept was inspired by the history of the Ljubljanica river, and in particular the change over time in the ways that locals interact with it.

Located in a narrow riverside park, the curved and pointed form of the wooden pavilion evoke the atmosphere of a boat that has been placed, seemingly at first, loosely among a line of trees beside a sluice gate built by Jose Plecnik. Upon further investigation, the subtleties of the orientation and the nature of the eccentric geometry become obvious.

Acknowledging the hierarchy in the directions of pedestrian movement on the site, the pavilion sits close to the water’s edge while reaching out through the tree-line towards the path. As it breaks the tree-line, the pavilion dissolves, encouraging movement towards the entrance of the pavilion, while also framing views of the sluice gate. The covered entryway is an exaggerated portico that addresses Plecnik’s monument. This creates a strong tension in a way that seems at once both formal and informal.

Site plan

The sliding door of the pavilion has no handle. Fluted carving, a reference to the features of the monument, offers grip over the entire surface of the door. Sliding back, it reveals the curved surfaces of the interior. The wooden floor of the entry lobby ends upon striking the elliptical curve of the interior exhibition space, where the most intriguing aspect of the concept is discovered – the floor of the exhibition space is a pool of water.

Plan

This is a reference to the way in which the Ljubljanica river was experienced by locals in the past, when the river lapped right onto some of the streets and the use of small boats was part of daily life. That moment of stepping from dry land onto a water based vessel is imitated in the Water Temple, when a visitor takes their first tentative step onto the sliced tree-trunks which are placed, unfixed, throughout the pool. Movement in the exhibition space is carefully balanced and considered.

Section

The elliptical shape of the interior was an experiment with the amplification of sound. An ellipse has two focal points, and any sound that occurs in the interior within certain directions will be loudest at those points. The effect is most obvious upon arrival at the first focal point inside the entrance, where the sound of the sluice gate is louder than at any position on the journey inside, and seems to surround the visitor.

Elevations

Exhibitors have the freedom to decide where the steps should be placed, or to use alternatives for their own exhibitions. Work can be mounted on steel supports fixed to the primary vertical structural members, and placed in or on the pool. The pavilion will remain in its current location for between 6 months to a year. A series of exhibitors will be allowed to use the pavilion in turn. Anybody interested in exhibiting in the Water Temple can make inquiries to MEDS.

Frame assembly diagram

The pavilion was built using CNC technology and wood bending techniques. DamaHaus used their CNC machine to manufacture the primary structural components, all made from pine. This included cutting a mixture of traditional blind tenon and exposed dovetail joints. The curved walls were made on-site by cold-bending and glueing 2 thin layers of wood together following immersion in the Ljubljanica river.

Wall assembly diagram

The post Water Temple Student Workshop
by Kieran Donnellan and MEDS students appeared first on Dezeen.

This bright green pavilion by Polish students Wojciech Nowak and Martynika Bielawska provides spectator stands for a football pitch and a basketball court in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The rectangular green pavilion frames two sets of cascading staircases, allowing spectators to face either direction.

The Life Stand pavilion was the winning design in a student competition entitled Trimo Urban Crash 2011, organised by building-materials firm Trimo.

More stories about pavilions on Dezeen »

Here are some more details from the competition organisers:

Opening of the winning project for the Trimo Urban Crash 2011

The workshop for finalists was mentored by Professor Cyril Shinga from the Chelsea College of Art and Design from the University of Arts – Trimo Research Awards were also granted.

Trimo officially handed over a public architectural installation “Life Stand” – the winning project of the Trimo Urban Crash competition for students of architecture and design which was created by Polish students, Wojciech Nowak from an architectural faculty in Gliwice, and Martynika Bielawska, from an art and design academy in Wroclaw.

The opening event was held in the centre of the residential neighbourhood of Fužine in the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana. The event was opened by the General Manager of Trimo, Tatjana Fink, and the Deputy Mayor of Ljubljana prof. Janez Koželj. A rich accompanying program with the Dunking Devils acrobatic team, the Bast dance group, and the performance of rapper, Adam Velić, ended with a banquet at the Museum of Architecture and Design, where it was the second day of the Trimo Urban Crash workshop for students whose projects were shortlisted in this year’s competition.

The creative workshop entitled “Responsible Architecture”, which was held by Professor Cyril Shing from the Chelsea College of Arts and Design, University of Arts London, and a former associate in the architectural bureau, Zaha Hadid Architects Ltd, London, was attended by 47 finalists from 16 different countries. The three-day workshop at which participants explored the importance of sustainable thinking in architecture and design creativity came to its end one day after the opening event with joint presentations of the finished products at the symposium and one-day excursion across Slovenia.

Trimo Urban Crash

The international Trimo Urban Crash competition for students of architecture and design was, for the third time, organised by Trimo. The competition, which encourages a creative transformation of the urban environment with the help of advanced building materials and technologies, was held between 15 October 2010 and 31 January 2011. The students of architecture and design, from 56 countries from all over the world, presented their ideas and submitted a total of 363 proposals for an urban multi-purpose facility at a location in Fužine.

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Rubber House by Zeinstra van Gelderen architecten	Trail House by Anne Holtrop	Hiroshima Park Restrooms by Future Studios

This trapezium-shaped box sitting on four slanting legs is a garden playhouse by Slovenian firm Ravnikar Potokar.

The wooden structure is designed to be self-supporting so that it can be erected among trees without leaning on them for support.

There is a full-height plexiglass window at one end of the tree house and tiny apertures with shutters on the sides.

Two retractable benches fold out of the walls, with a fixed bench at the back of the small inside space.

Photographs are by Andraž Kavčič, Robert Potokar, Robert Marčun.

More tree houses on Dezeen »

Here’s some more information from the architects:

Tree House, Slovenia

This freestanding house-by-a-tree is a multipurpose wooden play structure, standing on its own construction. It can be erected close to trees that are unable to support additional weight.

This tree house, conceived with contemporary design principles, is not modelled on any of the classic tree house forms that take their inspiration from either real houses or garden sheds.

Instead, children are offered a different understanding of shapes, new spatial experiences and new forms of play.

The house is made of spruce plywood, protected on the exterior by a colourless nano-varnish. The roof is covered in a roofing cardboard that shields against most kinds of unfavourable weather conditions.

Furnishings are minimal, constructed from dowel pins that we made with kids one Sunday afternoon.

Designer: Robert Potokar
Co-designer: Janez Brežnik
Location: Trnovo, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Construction: Tesarstvo Kregar

Click for larger image

Project: February 2008
Completion: first – June 2008, second -July 2009, third – October 2010
Building area: 3.5 m²

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Outlandia by Malcolm Fraser Architects	Treehouse by Nicko Björn Elliott	Takasugi-an by Terunobu Fujimori