After getting the commission for a building with offices and showrooms for luxury sanitary ware, Groleger Arhitekti decided to design a minimalist but elegant shape.
The facility is located near the business and commercial centre BTC in Ljubljana surrounded by large floor plan commercial-business buildings.
Due to the fact that the site itself does not offer visual qualities (nearby gas station, Bauhaus center, etc.) the author's planning strategy resulted in an introverted building.
Inspired by the world of Aquaristics, the architects designed a simple, 43.9 m x 28.0 m x 15.3 m high free standing compact concrete box divided into three levels (ground floor and two upper floors) providing 2500 sqm office/exhibition space under its roof.
Aquarium (the term combines the Latin root aqua, meaning water, with the suffix -arium, meaning "a place for relating to) was choosen as a reminiscent of water, meditation, relaxation and beeing far away from everyday worries and stress of our modern life.
The exterior is elegant and sophisticated: the predominant feature of the building is its main facade, glazed with a floor-to-ceiling glass screen (like the clear side of the aquarium), filtering soft, natural light into the heart of the building, flooding the interior with luminance, adding a sense of lightness and seamlessness reinforcing the prevailing spirit of openness. The long concrete ends of the box are pierced by an irregular pattern of circular windows of various sizes, a reminding at dissolved oxygen rising to the water surface.
In contrast to the more closed and withheld exterior, the interior is surprisingly playful and full of dynamic environments.
Four multy-height atria ensure maximum level of natural daylight and a visual connection with the exhibition spaces and offices.
Playful lamps – hanging through several floors - continue the idea of the bubbles rising to the water surface.
The result is an elegantly two-storey box that though it turns its back on its surroundings, conceals a tranquil and sensuous inner calm.
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