Function Follows Form

architect Nande Korpnik
project The Remodelling of Trg Celjskih Knezova, Celje, Slovenia
written by Uroš Lobnik

 

A DECADE OF TOWN SQUARE PLANNING IN SLOVENIA

 

This decade has seen many a national public competition for open public spaces in Slovene towns, in fact, they have been launched at the rate of more than one a year. In the fifties and sixties, town centres which had been damaged in WW2 were being revitalized and renewed via low-budgeted projects pulled through by local miracle workers. In the seventies, public spaces and playgrounds were (too) rare in the new housing projects; the eighties restored architects to towns and made the “public-space-as-a-parlour” concept popular. This was the turning point in evaluating the design of the open spaces of towns. The nineties saw the restoration of public spaces in front of town landmarks. A quick glance at that decade reveals that town square planning in Slovenia went at least two conceptually separate ways!