Zelena Jama
- Project team: Iskra Kirin, Josip Mičetić, Miro Roman, Luka Vlahović
- Mentor: Veljko Olujić
- Collaborator: Iva Marčetić
- Year: 06/2007
- Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Area: 132 740 m²
- Type: urban/architectural study of the development of a residential-business zone
The project for Zelena Jama, a new residential-business zone in Ljubljana, is part of the process of transformation of old industrial areas into vital urban zones which are necessary for the further urban development. The site is situated by the main railway station, within walking distance from the main square, on one of the key city thoroughfares, while the expected density of population in the area is rather high. All of this indicates that the location is of big importance to the city itself. With a proper organization of the space, the Zelena Jama area should upgrade and thus extend the city centre itself, as well as serve as a model of a transformation of an industrial zone into a new area of high-quality urban living. Zelena Jama thus becomes an extension of the city centre.
The main focus is put on the development of the method of superimposing green residential oases over the elements of busy urban life-style. Their interlacing and complementation serves as a basis of the project.
Method:
1. System of programmed stripes as a model of spatial organization
- creates a variety of programs as a basis
- creates basic relations between spaces, programs and functions
- by defining the programs, each area is in itself defined by size, position and repeating number
2. Deformation in the horizontal plane (XY)
- creates 3 green oases
- fits into the “neighbourhood” context
- creates introverted spaces fit to “local” proportions
- adds to the neighbouring sites
- generates typological changes within residential strips
Typological diversity is achieved by multiplication and transformation of the residential strips. Depending on their position, residential spaces differ from the atrium penthouse apartments, garden apartments, to home-offices.
3.Deformation in the vertical plane (XZ)
- creates a highly urban “alley”
- fits into the “urban” context
- creates external spaces with public content
- adds to the city infrastructure network
- generates “urban frames”
The “urban frames” are cultural and commercial programs whose typologies work as generators of urbanity. They are formed as a consequence of superimposing of the “urban alley” and residential areas.
A new quality of the Zelena Jama city area is visible through differentiation of the relations between spaces and programs. By treating equally all program elements, from infrastructure and parking, to residential and green areas, this model achieves a differentiated, highly urban space. The resulting structure offers a dense disposition of the residential areas, public spaces and commercial programs necessary in forming new city junctions.
This project shows how a simple functional disposition, altered by deformation conditioned by the neighbourhood and the city context, can create a complex organism fit to answer the needs of contemporary life-style.
