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ILIRIJA SPORTCITY
ILIRIJA SPORTCITY
Ljubljana, Slovenia
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ILIRIJA SPORTCITY
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2025
SIZE
300,000 sqft - 500,000 sqft
BUDGET
$50M - 100M
Photos
A Quarter Century Later: Ljubljana Finally Opens the Ilirija SportsCity
Some projects take years. This one took a generation.
In 2025, Ljubljana did something rare: it opened a piece of the city that had been dreaming for almost a hundred years. The old Ilirija open‑air swimming pool – where generations of Ljubljanians learned to swim, flirted in the sun, and forgot about time – is no longer just a memory. It has become the Ilirija Sports Citadel.
Not fast. Not easy. But finally here.
From Wasteland to Meeting Place
For decades, this spot was trapped. Stuck between railway tracks, busy roads, and the kind of urban no‑man's‑land that cities usually ignore. But now? Now it breathes.
The old bathhouse has grown into something larger: an “urban citadel” that doesn't lock people out, but welcomes them in. Yes, you can swim here. Train here. Compete here. But you can also come for a festival. A poetry reading. A winter market. A lazy coffee on a terrace that stays open all year, sheltered by one of the most dramatic roofs in the country.
This is not just sports architecture. This is public living.
What Survived – and What Changed
The original competition back in 2000 wanted to tear down the old entrance building. History had other plans. In 2011, Stanko Bloudek’s elegant pavilion became a protected landmark. So instead of erasing the past, the architects at LORENZATELIERS did something more difficult and more beautiful: they let the old and the new talk to each other.
The result is the Ilirija Joint – a covered public piazza that connects the city centre with Tivoli Park. A place where you can escape the rain, meet a friend, watch a dancer, or just exist without buying anything. Above it, a cantilevered roof, covered in 4,000 square metres of solar panels, stretches like a bird pausing mid‑flight.
Key facts & figures:
Name: Ilirija SportCity
Where: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Who paid for it: The Municipality of Ljubljana
Size: 29,500 m² (that is roughly 317,500 square feet – yes, it is big)
Cost: €62.5 million
When it all happened: Competition in 2000/2001, then revisions in 2003, 2010–2012, 2019–2021, construction finally started in 2022, and the doors opened in 2025.
Structural engineer: ELEA iC engineering and consulting d.o.o.
Builder: Makro 5 gradnje d.o.o.
Photographer: Ana Skobe (her images are the ones that make you stop scrolling)
The minds behind it: Peter Lorenz and Giulia Decorti
What the World Said
In 2026, this project picked up two awards: the WAN Award and the BIG SEE Architecture Award. Not bad for a building that took 25 years to become real.
Ten Things That Make This Place Different
One. Sport in the city centre. Finally, the wasteland between the railway and the main roads has a pulse.
Two. The main entrance is a renaissance move. After 83 years – ever since the railway tracks cut the connection in 1942 – the city can finally walk from the centre straight into Tivoli Park.
Three. One hundred years of memory. 1929: Bloudek builds the baths. 1995: the city decides to rebuild. 2000: the competition. 2001–2021: endless revisions. 2022: shovels in the ground. 2025: life returns.
Four. Protected history. Since 2011, Bloudek’s entrance building has been untouchable – and thank goodness.
Five. The roof. 12,000 square metres of cantilevered drama. Four thousand of those covered in photovoltaic panels. It spans three different structures and somehow makes the old building look like it belongs.
Six. You can see through everything. Inside and outside blend. Athletes watch visitors. Visitors watch athletes. The city watches itself.
Seven. It pays its own way, mostly. Sport, events, exhibitions, presentations – all help cover the bills. Plus zero‑energy tech and those solar panels. And yes, it fits the 15‑minute city idea perfectly.
Eight. The covered piazza. A public living room with a roof. No matter the weather, something happens here.
Nine. For the elite athlete, the weekend jogger, and the person who just wants to sit and watch. Urban interaction without a dress code.
Ten. A model for city centres. Open, loud, quiet, vibrant, weird, beautiful. It does not try to be perfect. It tries to be alive.
Two Voices from the Studio
Peter Lorenz (founder, LORENZATELIERS):
“You know, Slovenia had just become independent. Then came the EU. And Ljubljana decided to hold its first international architectural competition – a real one, two phases. We won. I did not know then that Ilirija would follow me for more than twenty years. In 2003, I thought we were about to start building. Instead, we waited. And waited. And now, watching people walk through that piazza for the first time? That is why you do this job.”
Giulia Decorti (partner, LORENZATELIERS):
“The strangest part? The competition rules said: demolish the old building. But over the years, the city changed its mind and protected it. At first, we were frustrated. It felt like a constraint. But constraints force you to be creative. In the end, we did not fight the old building. We listened to it. And that dialogue – old with new – became the whole point.”
Who They Are
LORENZATELIERS started in Innsbruck in 1980, founded by Peter Lorenz. Since 1991, they have also kept a studio in Vienna. In 2014, Giulia Decorti became a partner.
Some projects take years. This one took a generation.
In 2025, Ljubljana did something rare: it opened a piece of the city that had been dreaming for almost a hundred years. The old Ilirija open‑air swimming pool – where generations of Ljubljanians learned to swim, flirted in the sun, and forgot about time – is no longer just a memory. It has become the Ilirija Sports Citadel.
Not fast. Not easy. But finally here.
From Wasteland to Meeting Place
For decades, this spot was trapped. Stuck between railway tracks, busy roads, and the kind of urban no‑man's‑land that cities usually ignore. But now? Now it breathes.
The old bathhouse has grown into something larger: an “urban citadel” that doesn't lock people out, but welcomes them in. Yes, you can swim here. Train here. Compete here. But you can also come for a festival. A poetry reading. A winter market. A lazy coffee on a terrace that stays open all year, sheltered by one of the most dramatic roofs in the country.
This is not just sports architecture. This is public living.
What Survived – and What Changed
The original competition back in 2000 wanted to tear down the old entrance building. History had other plans. In 2011, Stanko Bloudek’s elegant pavilion became a protected landmark. So instead of erasing the past, the architects at LORENZATELIERS did something more difficult and more beautiful: they let the old and the new talk to each other.
The result is the Ilirija Joint – a covered public piazza that connects the city centre with Tivoli Park. A place where you can escape the rain, meet a friend, watch a dancer, or just exist without buying anything. Above it, a cantilevered roof, covered in 4,000 square metres of solar panels, stretches like a bird pausing mid‑flight.
Key facts & figures:
Name: Ilirija SportCity
Where: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Who paid for it: The Municipality of Ljubljana
Size: 29,500 m² (that is roughly 317,500 square feet – yes, it is big)
Cost: €62.5 million
When it all happened: Competition in 2000/2001, then revisions in 2003, 2010–2012, 2019–2021, construction finally started in 2022, and the doors opened in 2025.
Structural engineer: ELEA iC engineering and consulting d.o.o.
Builder: Makro 5 gradnje d.o.o.
Photographer: Ana Skobe (her images are the ones that make you stop scrolling)
The minds behind it: Peter Lorenz and Giulia Decorti
What the World Said
In 2026, this project picked up two awards: the WAN Award and the BIG SEE Architecture Award. Not bad for a building that took 25 years to become real.
Ten Things That Make This Place Different
One. Sport in the city centre. Finally, the wasteland between the railway and the main roads has a pulse.
Two. The main entrance is a renaissance move. After 83 years – ever since the railway tracks cut the connection in 1942 – the city can finally walk from the centre straight into Tivoli Park.
Three. One hundred years of memory. 1929: Bloudek builds the baths. 1995: the city decides to rebuild. 2000: the competition. 2001–2021: endless revisions. 2022: shovels in the ground. 2025: life returns.
Four. Protected history. Since 2011, Bloudek’s entrance building has been untouchable – and thank goodness.
Five. The roof. 12,000 square metres of cantilevered drama. Four thousand of those covered in photovoltaic panels. It spans three different structures and somehow makes the old building look like it belongs.
Six. You can see through everything. Inside and outside blend. Athletes watch visitors. Visitors watch athletes. The city watches itself.
Seven. It pays its own way, mostly. Sport, events, exhibitions, presentations – all help cover the bills. Plus zero‑energy tech and those solar panels. And yes, it fits the 15‑minute city idea perfectly.
Eight. The covered piazza. A public living room with a roof. No matter the weather, something happens here.
Nine. For the elite athlete, the weekend jogger, and the person who just wants to sit and watch. Urban interaction without a dress code.
Ten. A model for city centres. Open, loud, quiet, vibrant, weird, beautiful. It does not try to be perfect. It tries to be alive.
Two Voices from the Studio
Peter Lorenz (founder, LORENZATELIERS):
“You know, Slovenia had just become independent. Then came the EU. And Ljubljana decided to hold its first international architectural competition – a real one, two phases. We won. I did not know then that Ilirija would follow me for more than twenty years. In 2003, I thought we were about to start building. Instead, we waited. And waited. And now, watching people walk through that piazza for the first time? That is why you do this job.”
Giulia Decorti (partner, LORENZATELIERS):
“The strangest part? The competition rules said: demolish the old building. But over the years, the city changed its mind and protected it. At first, we were frustrated. It felt like a constraint. But constraints force you to be creative. In the end, we did not fight the old building. We listened to it. And that dialogue – old with new – became the whole point.”
Who They Are
LORENZATELIERS started in Innsbruck in 1980, founded by Peter Lorenz. Since 1991, they have also kept a studio in Vienna. In 2014, Giulia Decorti became a partner.
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