Description

With the globalisation of markets and the transformation to an information society, chambers of commerce are becoming increasingly necessary. It is their task to make this transformation comprehensible and to communicate it to the public.

Offering advice from consultants and organising training courses and informative presentations, the SIHK (Slovenian Chamber of Commerce) in Ljubljana provides an extensive program for businesses. The special areas necessary for this, such as the library, exhibition and seminar rooms, the lecture hall, the bar and the restaurant not only take up a large part of the building, but also determine its external appearance.

The special rooms, varying in height and depth, are piled up in front of a simple eight-storey block with the lower two storeys of office space projecting in front of it. Storey-height Vierendeel girders form the room structure and are clad – depending on the spatial requirements – by ceilings, walls or façade. The rooms in the interior are shown as volumes on the façade. Inside the building, this play of volumes can be experienced as a spatial continuum traversing all the levels. Each storey is different, having its own identity and proffering nuanced views and a perspective distinct from that of the space as a whole. Open galleries ornamented with seating elements offer both visitors and staff the opportunity for casual conversations. The architects intended this space to stimulate “interaction between the individual activities and the communication between visitors, guests and staff.”

The vertical division of internal office areas and public zones leads to a merging of functions and on every floor creates a direct link between the chamber of commerce and the public. An interstitial zone with service cores, meeting rooms and lounges forms the transition to the private offices of the staff, in a row along a corridor to the north. Office organisation was dictated by the staff’s advisory functions, which requires discretion.

As important design elements, light and colour underwrite the spatial staging and are visible from outside through the refined development of the glass façades. While the movements of visitors in the library, in the bar and on the gallery are only visible in silhouette through matte glass and only diffuse light shines out, the foyer and the entrance hall are open to view through floor-to-ceiling transparent glazing. The strong colours of the monochromatic lecture halls and seminar rooms plunge each room into a different light.

Situated somewhere between pop culture, Deconstruction and Functionalism, the new building signals the dawning of a new era in the interplay of colours and volumes.

---

Originally published in: Rainer Hascher, Simone Jeska, Birgit Klauck, Office Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2002.