Connection With the Context

architects Oton Jugovec, Emil Medvešček
project Glavna zadružna zveza Building, Ljubljana, Slovenia
written by Maruša Zorec

 

The building achieves its beauty through the brilliance of truth. The truth lies in everything worthy of honour and effort, to be carried on and preserved. This truth will reveal itself in proportion, and the proportion is man.

 

The famous Figovec Inn in Ljubljana was torn down in the early 1950s. The large city scale, with Nebotičnik at its helm, that brought a cosmopolitan spirit into town, started to outgrow the two-storey buildings along Slovenska Street. In 1953, a public competition was announced for the empty space between the Zalta building, adjacent to the Argentinian Park, and Slavija Palace on Slovenska Street. The architect Emil Medvešček (1911-1963), a student of Plečnik’s, won the competition with his proposal for the building of a new department store for the Slovenija Auto company. He was joined in the Slovenija Projekt office for project realization by young architect Oton Jugovec (1921-1987), after he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana where he studied under Professor Edvard Ravnikar. The result of their collaboration was a harmonious whole. It was the creative peak for both architects³, and still represents a fitting example for the Slovenska Street area.