Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti

| Jurij Sadar (*1963) | Bostjan Vuga (*1966)

Sadar in Vuga arhitekti is a young critical architectural practice of Ljubljana. Its project principle is removed from the conventional design processes and techniques that inevitably lead to conventional architecture products. Sadar in Vuga arhitekti search for stimuli for their project in the world of visual, acoustics and written information, in art, fashion, science and technology. It aims to develop design techniques that makes their architectural products fresh and long lasting at the same time. Don't be surprised to find textilefabric woven in two colors presented as the effect of a new facade, or if one the basic premises for a residential one family house is that of the least possible displacement of land on terrain innacessible to machinery and vehicles. You can discuss the new sports center as you would a sequence from a science fiction film ; a diagram of human brain impulses is the basis for determining relations between spaces in the multiplex cinema center. The office building is a floating monolith. The commerce institution building consists in part of metal boxes resembling those by LeWitt set one on top another. Of course all these motions, these basic prototypes, are modified, reworked and adapted to the client's program, wishes and demands through the operative development of the project. The value of the investment is always one of the project parameters—the price influences all aspects of planning. Sadar in Vuga arhitekti invests its financial profits into the development of a new design concepts and techniques. Within strict commercial conditions where time and money are the main concerns, this enables it to create fresh, different and attractive architectural products. Sadar in Vuga arhitekti attempts to bridge the distance between experimental, theoretical architecture and corporate architecture with a predetermined appearance. Sadar in Vuga arhitekti believes that today's architectural product can only be the result of the common effort of internal as well as external team members. The concept of the superior creative individual mind has been exhausted. From the initial brainstorming to the choice of presentation rendering, key decisions are always made in a team. Sadar in Vuga is part of O.C.E.A.N. Net. This network was founded in London in 1995 as an open and flexible form of affiliation, cooperation and promotion of architectural production. The architecture of Sadar in Vuga arhitekti wants to open herself to all geographical and intellectual influences, to integrate all the internal or external parameters, and innovate.

Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti

Aomori Prefectural Art Museum
Aomori, Japon, concours, 2000

The proposal put forward by Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti for the competition for the Aomori Museum is based on the idea of permeability. The view and the light move through the five overlaid platforms (108 x 42 m) forming the building, filtering inside and working their way from one floor to the next by way of a host of round apertures or cavities. In the horizontal landscape made up of these platforms, these holes open up an infinite array of vertical permeable elements. The actual museum occupies three of the five platforms. Two are buried underground and one is suspended above the ground. Between the two, an intermediate space is left free, allowing the natural ground to pass through the museum and, with it, wind, snow, and strolling visitors. Nature also resolutely inhabits the exterior of the museum by means of this permeability, here horizontal. Each of the museum's four levels has its own entrance hall. These halls are interconnected by the round apertures, housing escalators and lifts.

Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Slovénie
Ljubljana, Slovénie, 1996-2000

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose task is to promote the movement and flow of capital in this emerging Republic of Slovenia, is conceived, by Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti, 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 lowrise building, and the addition of a series of semi-public amenities (restaurants, library, lecture rooms, exhibition areas, archival reading room). The Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti 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, they verticalized the programme along the existing building, 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.

University Sports Hall
Ljubljana, Slovénie, concours, 1997
Lauréat

The Sports Centre is a large, multipurpose object, a critical mass with significant urban implications. Sadar in Vuga arhitekti designed it to cope with the possible extreme conditions of a sold-out event. Billed to become Slovenia's largest sports hall, it is conceived as an actual sheltered part of the city—with its shopping galleries, its restaurant, its fitness rooms, and its gymnasium, etc. This huge but compact pebble-like structure, which is connected to both the city and the park, looks like an André Bloc sculpture. The structure of the building is provided by a colossal twisted concrete ring. The roof and the façades are made of the same homogeneous and translucid membrane, creating changing interplays of natural and artifical light. The Sports Centre is completely adjustable and flexible, and offers every possible type of configuration for the various sports, on a whole range of scales (with a maximum of 10,000 spectators).

Central Part of the National Gallery
Ljubljana, Slovénie, concours, 1996
Lauréat

What was involved in this project was the linkage of two existing National Gallery buildings, and the development of a place for the monumental Robba fountain, as well as an independent place for the museum's public events (openings, meetings). In their project, Sadar in Vuga arhitekti tried above all to free themselves from the indeterminate distance between the two buildings, deemed to be absurd and irrational. They examined a solution that would be independent and would work even if this distance were different. Inspired by Issey Miyake's "folded tubes", the building's structure consists of an alignment of parallel porticoes with varying geometry. These porticoes have many different functions. They support the roof and the curtain façade, as well as the various networks and systems : electricity, lighting, ventilation, heating. The completely glazed extension comes across like a see-through interface between park and city. Set in the Presernove Street axis, it affords a monumental entrance to the museum.

Jurij Sadar (1963)

1987 — Diplômé de la Faculté d'Architecture, Université de Ljubljana
1997/1993 — Professeur assistant à la Faculté d'Architecture de Ljubljana

Bostjan Vuga (1966)

1992 — Diplômé de la Faculté d'Architecture, Université de Ljubljana
1995 — Graduate Design Diploma, Architectural Association School of Architecture, Londres ; co-fondateur du réseau transdisciplinaire "O.C.E.A.N." (Londres, Helsinki, Oslo, Cologne, Boston et Ljubljana)
1996 — Création de l'Agence à Ljubljana (Slovénie)

Principaux projets et réalisations

2000/96 — "Chamber of Commerce and Economic of Slovenia Office Building" Ljubljana (réalisée) ; "Aomori Museum" Aomori, Japon (concours) ; "Arcadiaworld Office and Exhibition Building" Ljubljana (en cours) ; "Lesna Industrija Bovec" Bovec (en cours)
1999 — "Business Center Tivoli" Ljubljana (projet) ; "House Tivoli" Ljubljana (projet) ; "Business Center Moszkva Ter" Budapest (projet) ; "Bioclimatic House" Ljubljana (projet) ; "Jewellery Divina" Ljubljana (projet)
1998 — "Office Building Dimiceva 9" extension, Ljubljana (réalisé) ; "Studio de télévision " Nova Gorica (projet) ; "Expo 2000 Slovenian Pavilion" Hannover (projet) ; "Fontaine Solkan" Solkan (lauréat) ; "Parlement de Slovénie" rénovation, Ljubljana (2ème prix) ; "Crni kal Viaduct" et "Bridge over the Mura River" autoroute Koper / Lendava (mention honorable) ; "Complexe Résidentiel et Commercial Tacenski dvori" Ljubljana (2ème prix)
1997 — "Dom/Mueller Department Store" Ljubljana (réalisé) ; "Residential Building" extension, Piran (projet) ; "University Sports Park" et "Universty Sports Hall" Ljubljana (lauréat) ; "REI Business Center" Ljubljana (mention honorable) ; "Cinema Multiplex" Ljubljana (projet)
1996 — "Central Part of The National Gallery" Ljubljana (lauréat)

Principales publications de Sadar in Vuga arhitekti' d.o.o.

1999 — Sadar in Vuga arhitekti' d.o.o. n°2 (Dve = Two) Ljubljana (mars)
1998 — Sadar inVuga arhitekti' d.o.o. n°1(Ena = One)Ljubljana (janv.)

Bibliographie sélective

1999 — "Slovene Dream" Wallpaper n°20, Intelligence, Londres
1998 — "Spaces in Time, Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti" S. Tomazic, Monoliths of the Future, Ars Vivendi, Ljubljana ; "Dom Gospordarstva" M. Hribar, GZS, Ljubljana
1997 — "Sadar in Vuga Arhitekti, studio organization is economic strategy" Architectural Profile n°2, Bangkok ; "O.C.E.A.N. net." Architects Bulletin n°135/136, Ljubljana ; "The O.C.E.A.N. net. - Becoming Unlimited" B. van Berkel, C. Bos, AA Files n°33, Londres ; "Architecture Designed by Operativity" Spela Mlakar, Il Progetto n°1, Trieste