Sunshine Home

architect Barbara Selinšek
project Reconstruction of a Home For the Elderly, Maribor, Slovenia
written by Uroš Lobnik

 

Since the appearance of commercial television, the country has been flooded with shows of the “come-for-a-make-over” type. The greatest response has been from among the middle-aged population seeking advice on how to change or improve the conventional looks of the average hard-working individual. It would be interesting to see what would happen if a similarly conceived show was to feature construction companies, providing advice and assistance on how to reconstruct the post-war buildings which were, more often than not, built quickly and as side projects (with left-over material) during the socialist development of towns. There are many such buildings, and after half a century they are all in a severe state of disrepair due to the poor or inadequate quality of construction materials used. They are also often dysfunctional in their spatial arrangement.