Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Photo © Hisao Suzuki

Architects: Sadar+Vuga

Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Year: 1999

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose task is to promote the movement and flow of capital in the Republic of Slovenia, is conceived as a "megastore".

In encompassing consultation, information and training departments and services, it acts as a local lead-in to economic globalization. What was involved in this project was the rehabilitation of the institution's offices housed in a strictly rationalist low-rise building, and the addition of a series of semi-public amenities (restaurants, library, lecture rooms, exhibition areas, and archival reading room).

Project attempts explicitly to do away with any barriers between the public, semi-public and private features which are all present in this hybrid design.

By retaining the huge public forecourt, the programme along the existing building is verticalized, thus giving it a new façade, designed like boxes piled on top of each other. Fitted between the two fronts, as if the public forecourt had been suddenly straightened, is a vertical hall, espousing the principle of continuity and interaction between the two parts of the programme.