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Architects: Edvard Ravnikar
- Year: 1960
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Photographs:Martin Kambič
Republic Square in Ljubljana holds immense historical and symbolic significance for Slovenia. It is located in the historic center of the city and features a blend of buildings with different designs, scales, and dimensions, together with interconnected open spaces, passages, and underpasses. These elements form a multifunctional complex whose construction lasted more than 20 years and underwent several volumetric and programmatic reconfigurations. Visible from a distance and standing out above the Ursuline Church’s bell tower, two prominent office towers rise as part of this work designed by Edvard Ravnikar, the most prominent Slovenian architect of the second half of the 20th century.
In the context of designing a new political center for Ljubljana, the project of Revolution Square, now known as Republic Square, dates back to 1960 when Edvard Ravnikar won first prize in the competition for the architectural and urbanistic concept of a symbolic space representing the Republic. This project envisioned a monumental square and a revolution memorial. The competition aimed to redesign the Ursuline Convent’s garden area, intending to transform it into the symbolic center of the entire composition.
Through the creation of this square, the idea was to give Ljubljana a representative character and transform it into a modern urban center. In the 1920s, Ljubljana was a small provincial city with around 40,000 inhabitants. By the time the competition was announced, it had grown into the capital of Slovenia with 130,000 residents and numerous scientific, cultural, and political institutions.
Edvard Ravnikar's initial proposal envisioned a space as wide as the entire block, without any elevations. It included two 20-story prismatic triangular towers on the southern front of the platform, facing each other and framing the monument of the Revolution. The space would also feature dense vegetation and a green belt in alignment with the Park of Heroes. Additionally, the building on the northwest side of Congress Square would be demolished to create a system of smaller squares extending towards the historical city to the east.
Although Edvard Ravnikar represented a modernist position and was influenced by Le Corbusier, Revolution Square did not aim to separate architecture and urban planning. In contrast to the ideals of classical modernism, which focused on the autonomy of objects in space, Ravnikar showed significant interest in spatial context as a source of architectural concepts. He embraced the challenge of designing buildings and spaces within an existing city, striving to establish a dialogue between his modern architecture and older buildings.
“The Monument to the Revolution can only be made magnificent by the architecture that surrounds it. A colossal monument alone could lead to an empty patheticism that would over time become indigestible.” - Edvard Ravnikar
Faced with the complexity of a super-ordered space, Edvard Ravnikar proposed a layout of volumes where the historical complex of the monastery and the old nuns' church connected with the residential buildings of Vladimir Šubic. Starting from the design of the two towers, he created a symbolic gateway to the square where the Monument to the Revolution was to be erected. A lower, elongated building separates the monastery complex from the new square, regulating the irregular structure of adjacent buildings and ensuring spatial and visual continuity. Additionally, numerous passages between the buildings expand the space and fuse the old with the new.
These volumes interlace spaces and establish linguistic relationships with the city's scales and historical layers. From the beginning, Ravnikar conceived the office buildings based on two options: 10 or 20 floors, assuming they could accommodate the entire administration of the "central government": one for the executive council and secretariats, and the other for the central committee and "mass organizations." He also developed two variants for the tower floors: one with additional "wing extensions" at the corners of the triangle and one without them.
“An analysis of the various forms of the layout of the tall office building shows that the triangle is the most rational. In the analysis, the core of the side rooms /.../ is always the same size and the useful area is the largest in the triangle.” - Edvard Ravnikar
Republic Square maintained the essential elements of the original design, modifying only its spatial configuration beyond the functions. The volumes of the two towers were rotated, scaled in height, and shifted from the original north-south axis. The facade became uniform, while the Monument to the Revolution was moved from the main platform to the green belt in the northwest. The dimensions and locations of the original volumes next to the towers were also modified.
By the early 1970s, the construction of Republic Square as a symbol of Slovenian sovereignty was abandoned for political reasons, reflecting the changing political and economic situation in Yugoslavia. To continue its construction, some buildings needed to be acquired by investors. Consequently, political ambitions shifted, creating commercial and business center space. The investors included Ljubljanska Banka, the Emona department store, and Iskra. These programmatic adjustments demanded modifications to the urban and architectural projects, such as relocating the Monument to the Revolution, altering the height of the towers, and incorporating more ground-floor buildings at the investors' request. However, the original composition of several squares, corridors, underpasses, and stairs remained unchanged.
“After much searching and testing, the concept finally settled on two triangular towers as the most rational in terms of the relationship between the peripheral spaces and the necessary area for the core. The final heights were set at half the original (due to the cost of technology) and especially to make them more reconcilable with the old town. The shift towards the centre of the square created two spaces separated by the masses of the two towers, which close in with the tops of the triangles forming ‘a gate to Ljubljana’” - Edvard Ravnikar
The towers have unequal silhouettes due to their irregular and varied roof treatments. For many years, the platform suffered degradation with the addition of a parking area, which was eventually removed. The square underwent expansion, losing its axial lines, and the new intervention moved away from the geometric division dictated by the surrounding blocks. It transformed into a completely pedestrian area with an underground parking level, shifting from an empty and sterile square to a multi-level walkable space.
The high-rise buildings were constructed around a central supporting core, featuring cantilevered floors and independent facades clad in thin slabs of Pohorje marble. The headquarters of Ljubljanska Banka (TR2) also utilize this marble cladding in its lower volume, while the Iskra tower (TR3) incorporates brick facing at its base. This distinction highlights different functions, such as the technical library of the University. These uses are linguistically and functionally separated while maintaining the dynamic character of the exterior skin.
The buildings of Republic Square are a testament to a modern conception of architecture and a loyalty to classical architecture. Their materiality is influenced by contemporary construction industrialization, even if the fabrication was done on-site. As part of Open House Slovenia 2024, Cankarjev Dom is the cultural and congress center planned by Ravnikar, which represents the last building erected as part of Republic Square with its 36,000 square meters.
Marking the city's profile, Ravnikar conceived the square and its contents based on proximity, pedestrian perspectives, and views either within the square or towards its neighboring districts. The ground floor focused on a variety of forms, materials, levels, and paths to create an urban landscape. Combining simple construction details with a range of innovations, Republic Square was built over almost three decades. Faced with numerous changes and unpredictable events, Edvard Ravnikar developed an "open design strategy" allowing for adjustments to the original project once large parts of the complex were built. Over time, the project evolved with a series of activities, architectures, and spaces, transforming it from a revolution memorial into a complex urban, economic, social, and political-administrative center. Currently, Republic Square is classified as a monument of national importance.
This article is part of an ArchDaily series focusing on built projects showcased in various editions of Open House Europe, highlighting their relationship with their cities, surroundings, materials, or programs. As always, at ArchDaily, we welcome contributions from our readers. If you would like to suggest or submit a specific project, please contact us.
