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Formula
New Ljubljana, by Sadar
Vuga Arhitekti.
The Formulas in the title of this
monograph of the Slovenian architects' Sadar Vuga Arhitekti
are formal gestures that the firm uses towards adding a
21st-century layer to the rapidly-changing city of Ljubljana,
to establish a new kind of social interaction, and a means
of communicating architecturally without relying on strictly
architectural typologies or vocabulary. Within the pages
of this book, 15 formulas are applied to 26 projects, meaning
the formulas are used on multiple designs and therefore
take on numerous characteristics. One example, an executed
project, is 2004's Condominium
Trnovski Pristan, the first condominium in Ljubljana,
in which the firm applied the "Blown-Up Window"
formula, and the distinction between interior and exterior
space, and supported and supporting elements is blurred.
The condominium and the remaining
25 projects show a preference for novelty, in which the
formulas play a large part. This novelty, though, is refined
over time as the formulas are used on various projects,
some unbuilt and some completed, and the formal maneuvers
become inhabited offices, apartments, stores, and so forth.
A concern for the social element in the end product is evident
within these pages, even though the book presents the projects
as generated by form-giving formulas. Given the apparent
lack of compatibility between these two areas -- the formal
and the social -- much of their work is criticized for its
novelty and often not understood by the public.
A good example of this, and one that
illustrates the architect's appreciation of the social,
is actually two projects: the Chamber of Commerce and Industry
of Slovenia (their first project, started in 1995 and completed
in 1999) and a new VIP room atop the same building only
five years later. The latter picks up on the occupants "softening"
of the former with plants -- at desks, in corridors, outside
-- so rather than continue with the same formula of their
original design, the architects responded to the new layer
of green with a VIP room nicknamed the Panoramic Garden
for the abundance of green supplied by the architects.
What the office's formulas also accomplish
is a unique monograph. Unlike a strictly chronological presentation
of projects, this book takes a similar presentation and
makes the formulas a layer on top of the projects. The list
of the 15 formulas begins the book, each referencing the
appropriate projects using them; each project then references
the formula that generated its form. This makes for a book
that can be read in numerous ways, though the documentation
of each design helps make this book an outstanding example
of an architectural monograph, as photos and drawings are
accompanied by diagrams and text with a personal honesty
missing from other monographs that veer towards the dry
and objective. Lastly, the well-executed graphic design,
a weaving composition of horizontal lines, helps tie the
book together without overwhelming or distracting from the
content.
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