A Discreet Accent

architects Janko J. Zadravec & Branko Čepić
project Secondary Food Processing School, Maribor, Slovenia
written by Uroš Lobnik

 

THE AREA OF RESTRUCTURING

 

The Food Processing Secondary School in Tabor and a three-year-old Trade Secondary School are generators of the restructuring of a major dilapidated urban area of the city of Maribor. The Food Processing Secondary School lies on the right bank of the river Drava, near historical city center. The process of reconstruction of a dilapidated military barracks into a modern school has been going on for over five years and is due for completion in another two or three years. On an urban scale, the restructuring of a grey zone introduces a new central city area to complement the lack of public functions of the district in order to, by introducing new structures, preserve some precious environmental and historical assets of the Austro-Hungarian barracks and to reclaim for public use an area which has represented for decades an impassable zone. Renewal, adaptation, and addition are the key architectural terms in this process, enabling the expansion of the land use. The Food Processing Secondary School brings quality to urban and architectural design with its discreetly modern accent establishing the continuity between the old and the new in a dialogue between them.