project: NUK II UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
client: Ministry of higher education, science and technology
type: public
location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
surface: 20830 m2
date: 08.03.2012
status: competition entry
project team: Erick Velasco Farrera, SANGRAD architects
URBAN DEVELOPMENT PARAMETERES
The square, which is a programmatically necessary space of a public building, in this case is being located under the building along the ancient streets F and H. The original walls of the archaeological excavations determine the depression of the square and its connection to the city streets Zoisova and Emonska (main entrances to the building). The passage through the building (planned by the project) thus becomes an active plaza, to be reached from all sides. A service entrance is envisaged from Rimska street. A bus station in the Zoisova street has been planned next to the South-West fringe of the land plot, while the South-East has been taken by the impluvium reconstruction. On Zoisova street there are also additional city bus lane, cycling lane and tree line. Emonska street has been planed as a shared space with a tree line along both sides of the road (extension of Plečnik`s green avenue). 12 car parking spaces for library urgent needs are located along Emonska street while bicycle parking spaces are located along both Emonska and Zoisova street and in the back of the library.
THE BLOCK
The library building forms a closed block with the existing residential building in the Northwestern part of the site. At the places of connection between the new with the old, the volume is lowered at both wings, respectively ending in the second floor (top of roof 14.10). Compact volumes (four floors high, roof top 28.00) are coming out of the two floor base set above the transparent ground floor and mezzanine.
VISUAL PRECONDITIONS
The library building is introverted, dignified and at the typological hierarchy, a highly ranked form. The historical roman excavations are partly closed in the transparent glass insuale in the first two floors. Above them hovers a “heavy” corpus with a stainless-steel skin which reflects the surroundings in a somewhat murky, reduced outline. Through slits of the massive volume done by continuous glass stripes the secondary visual of the interior is presenting itself as a inner light, movements of people, colors and a diverse setting of furniture that makes the interior very rich.
