arhiv

a place of remembrance at the transition between the verticals of the forest and the limitlessness of the horizon

The cemetery as a place of memory and a ritual place of farewell, both a place of community and a quiet place of contemplation, is designed at the transition between the verticals of the forest and the limitlessness of the horizon. The space of the cemetery is defined by contrasting relationships and transitions between open and closed, between light and dark, between here and hereafter.
It is located in an exceptional location, on a ridge above the central part of Ankaran, above the modernist church of St. Nikolaj along the Oljčna poti, which offers views of the Bay of Trieste and Slovenian Istria. It is precisely because of its exceptional location that the land was originally left over for commercial construction, but after protests by the local community it was re-purposed as a cemetery. Ankaran did not have a suitable place to say goodbye to the deceased, so it means a new cemetery, one of the main public spaces of the local community, both functionally and symbolically.

The forest cemetery shows its dual nature by design. On the one hand, it functions as a freely passable park forest intended for walks and contemplation, and on the other, as a series of marked burial fields, smaller cemeteries, which are lined up in terraces on the slope above the farewell building. The relief is geometrized into five terraces, which, due to their connection to the existing terrain, spread out like a fan. On the first terrace there is a farewell facility, which we climb up a gentle ramp. Walled burial fields are located on the next three terraces, and on the highest one there is a space for scattering. Individual, more intimate spaces are connected by a serpentine ritual path embedded in a network of forest paths connected to the center of Ankaran. Along the way, there are processes of saying goodbye, mourning, remembering and reflecting, as well as socializing and meeting. The well-thought-out dramaturgy of architectural and landscape elements lined up along the path directs the visitor’s gaze alternately along the terrain between the verticals of the forest and perpendicularly to the terrain towards the sea, into this unfathomable dimension that merges with the sky on the horizon.

The farewell chapel is close to the edge of the forest and removed from the building mass of the church, which allows unobstructed views of the horizon. It consists of three environments. An entrance platform with a bench as an entry space open to the horizon, a morgue as an introverted mourning space illuminated by zenithal light and a covered farewell space, separated from the morgue with a green atrium and open to the depths of the forest via a water mirror. With its longitudinal design of long walls parallel to the terrain, covered by a floating flat roof, it is related to the structure of the cemetery walls. In the back, introverted volume, there are service rooms with storage, toilets and a kitchenette. The location and transitory nature of the farewell object mark the beginning of the ritual journey and the transition from the public to the space of memory.

The design of the grave fields comes from the interpretation of traditional coastal walled cemeteries found near Ankaran, Lovran, Bertok and Stari Milje. The burial fields are surrounded by a low wall, which is interrupted by a higher brick wall at the entrance. In addition to the niches in the brick wall, inside the burial fields there are floor baptistery and floor brick graves with tombstones directed towards the entrance, with the horizon in the background. The highest grave field with space for scattering is two-height and surrounded by a clipped hedge. The upper level is bounded by a thin line of retaining wall, from which the undertaker scatters the ashes into seemingly infinity. In total, the cemetery contains 110 ground baptismal graves, 246 ground burial graves, 180 burial niches and 272 burial places.

All architectural elements materially derive from the colors and textures of the location. Amidst the massive washed concrete walls in the earthy color of the flysch layers, the polished concrete fire walls stand out, while the bright connecting path floats above the terrain. Individual accents and functional elements are made of local karst limestone, wood and metal.
Ankaran Cemetery, with its modern approach to the cemetery as part of a free-passable park forest accessible to all, transforms the traditional idea of ​​the cemetery space as a place of the dead into a metaphor for community.

client

Municipality of Ancaran

competition

first place

year

2019

location

Ankaran, Oljčna pot

surface area

1600m2

project group, competition

architecture
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Martina Vitlov, štud. arh.
Mateo Zonta, abs. arh.

landscape architecture
dr. Ana Kučan, u.d.i.k.a.
Luka Javornik, u.d.i.k.a.
Danijel Mohorič, m.i.k.a.
Pia Kante, m.i.k.a.
Katja Mali, abs. kraj. arh.

project group

architecture
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Mateo Zonta, m.i.a.

wayfinding design
Tomaž Mlinarič, u.d.i.a.

landscape architecture
dr. Ana Kučan, u.d.i.k.a.
Luka Javornik, u.d.i.k.a.
Danijel Mohorič, m.i.k.a.

photography: Ana Skobe

the interweaving of three typologies in a tower of democracy

The spatial design of the courthouse comes from three typological units that are connected into a new whole: the court tower, the office slat and the park pavilion. An extended passage on the ground floor of the building covers the vestibule of the entrance hall from which the public rises to the level of the discussion halls. Their organization into the varied vertical volume of the court tower enables the development of the court palace’s vertical hall with multi-level interspaces and hall waiting rooms oriented towards the park and the city center with Ljubljana Castle. The court tower becomes the new representative public space of the city.

The extensive office program is arranged in a double-sided lamella that follows the building line along Dunajska cesta. The lamella floats above the public ground floor and descends into the ground-floor pavilion volume at the corner between Dunajska cesta and Topniška ulica. On the upper floors, the lamella rests against the court tower so that judges can access each floor of the tower directly from the internal corridor of the departments.

The court palace park is enclosed towards Topniška street by a ground-floor pavilion with a restaurant, which opens on both sides to the park and the street. The low volume balances the building mass of the palace and introduces a human dimension to the park area. The topography of the abandoned building pit and the unique ecosystem that developed within it are interpreted by the new, varied public landscape of the court park.

The duality of the public discussion and supporting internal administrative office program is demonstrated both in the volumetric design and the facade. The public part of the building is transparent and designed as a light structure with slender columns, thin metal railings and building elements in the interior. The office lamella is designed according to the principle of a glass facade with movable aluminum blinds, which create the impression of light awnings. Movable blinds allow variation of the uniform facade area and the impression of individuality within the repetitive rhythm of offices.

client

Ministry of Justice

competition

recognition

year

2021

location

Ljubljana

surface area

61.000m2

project group

Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Tomaž Mlinarič, u.d.i.a.
Mateo Zonta m.i.a.

collaborators:
Darja Josić, m.i.a.,
Urška Linda Beuermann, m.i.a.
Rok Staudacher, m.i.a.

reversible interventions in the archaeological area with a view to the future

The new intervention is designed to transform the degraded and inaccessible landscape of the existing quarries into a place of contemplation with the microclimate of a Mediterranean garden and a place for recreation and summer events.

The interpretation center is a floating atrium pavilion, which with its materiality and design is subordinate to the context in which it is located, blends with the landscape and serves as a medium of education about the cultural and historical heritage of the location and presentation of the production processes of ceramics. With its appearance, it represents an airy, light, elemental architecture and a completely reversible intervention in the space.

client

Municipality Tar-Vabriga

year

2022

location

Croatia, Tar

surface area

object, 300m2

project group

Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Mateo Zonta, abs. arh.

women’s prison as open architecture at the intersection of nature and heritage

What should be the place for the enforcement of sanctions, which will encourage humanity and the reintegration of protected women into society? The reflection on the modern prison is based on the promotion of social inclusion instead of isolation and thus preparation for freedom. Here, architecture can play a key role only to the extent that it ensures, within the required security requirements, the openness of the design, which enables and encourages communication with the outside space. The concept is developed from three elements: a plinth, which redefines the forecourt of the castle and highlights the castle as a spatial dominant; walls that rise from the plinth and terrace the area into which the new program slats of the shutter are placed; notches at the contact with the existing topography, which illuminate the basement floors, open up views of nature and establish the necessary height of the protective perimeter.

client

Ministry of Justice

competition

first place

year

2017

location

Ig, Na Grad

surface area

10.000m2

project group, competition

Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Lara Sedar, abs. arh.
Matija Zega, štud. arh.
Tomislav Krnač, abs. kraj. arh.
Božidar Rustja, u.d.i.a.

project group

Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Tomaž Mlinarič, u.d.i.a.
Katja Aljaž, u.d.i.a.
Staša Baranja, u.d.i.a.
Darja Josić, m.i.a.
Lara Sedar, m.i.a.
Matija Zega, štud. arh.

a transparent palace on the historical axis

The new building of the State Audit Institution of Montenegro is a compact building volume that follows the building lines and at the same time is morphologically connected to the geometry of the surrounding buildings with the notch of the intermediate vertical hall. The hybrid typology of the business palace combines a low pavilion part on the ground floor, open directly to atriums with a mediterranean garden, and a vertical urban hall that runs through all floors. This works as a generator of communication between employees, as all workplaces are visually connected to each other. The flexibility of the work space is achieved with a variable configuration of workplaces, which is provided by an open floor plan without structural supports – the entire building is supported by two reinforced concrete cores on which the steel structure of the floor rests.

client

Ministry of ecology, spatial planning and urbanism, Montenegro

competition

second place

year

2022

location

Montenegro, Podgorica

surface area

3700m2

project group

Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Tomaž Mlinarič, u.d.i.a.
Urška Linda Breuermann, m.i.a.
Mateo Zonta, abs. arh.


urban palimpsest

The spatial concept of the new building on Erjavčeva Street in Ljubljana is derived from three spatial elements that materialize the memory of the demolished Villa Bahovec and articulate the open public space of the city at the end of the axis of Ravnikar´s Trg republike square. The slender building volume defines the edge of the public space between Gregorčičeva and Erjavčeva and leaves an open passage from Trg republike square. The new plinth defines the border between public and semi-public space and materializes the perimeter of the demolished villa. The residential volume floating above the plinth follows the heights and facade lines of the surrounding buildings.

The architectural design of the building establishes a platform with a staircase and a ramp that runs along the park and connects to the existing staircase in front of the Majde Vrhovnik Elementary School. The platform creates the character of a high ground floor, under which there is a basement with parking and service areas. From Erjavčeva street the ground floor descends slightly into the public program (e.g. gallery) between the perimeter walls, which follow the line of the perimeter walls of the former Villa Bahovec. Via ramp, the ground floor rises to a platform from which we enter the residential part of the building, which comprises 4 floors and a public program on the platform level (e.g. a bookstore). The division of the building volume into two staggered lamellas oriented north-south enables a favorable orientation of the rooms to the east and west and the division of the floor plan into additional mezzanines. The apartments consist of a living room and two mezzanines with bedrooms. Mezzanines enable greater utilization of the building volume and flexibility of apartment types by maintaining the floor plan.

client

LEONTIPODIUM d.o.o.

year

2019

location

Ljubljana, Erjavčeva street

surface area

1600m2

project group, competition

Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Tomaž Mlinarič, u.d.i.a.,
Denis Hitrec abs. arh.,
Lara Sedar abs. arh.,
Rok Staudacher m.i.a.

double-sided apartments without corridors for young and young families

Maribor’s Magdalena district marks the transition from a compact area of city squares to a scattered buildings in the green. The location of the new building follows the street lines and adapts to them in both horizontal and vertical dimensions. The compact building volume occupies only 50% of the land area and allows the other 50% to be used for green areas. On one side, the perimeter building closes the building island with an urban street facade and on the other side surrounds a safe inner atrium with a children’s playground. The building is designed as a generator of the urbanity of the city area, as a public program is located in the corner of the ground floor for everyone (cafe, co-working space, repair shop, exchange office, mobility center, etc.).

Most apartments have two-sided orientation. The vertical communications are on the street façade and next to them are few one-sided apartments, looking towards the park. The two-sided orientation ensures quality views, quality ventilation and better contact of the apartments both with the natural environment in the atrium as well as with the city street. The apartments enable a flexible way of living, which offers young people and young families from different social, cultural and economic backgrounds deep living spaces with a circular floor plan and variable room layout. The project also envisages the recycling of waste concrete and bricks of existing buildings by processing them into cement clinker for the concrete construction of new ones.

client

Public intermunicipal housing fund Maribor

competition

third place

year

2022

location

Maribor, Dvořakova street

surface area

9200m2

project group

Primož Žitnik, u.d.i.a.
Uroš Rustja, u.d.i.a.
Mina Hiršman, m.i.a.
Tomaž Mlinarič, u.d.i.a.
Urška Linda Beuermann, m.i.a.
Darja Josić m.i.a.
Mateo Zonta m.i.a.