FERANT GARDEN APARTMENT 2018 - 2020

The Ferant Garden mixed-use complex (designed 1964, completed 1973) by the renowned Slovenian architect and professor Edvard Ravnikar (1907-1993) in the centre of Ljubljana is the epitome of the creator’s critique to modernist housing developments and urban planning in their failure to address the social importance of open public spaces and programmatic mix. The open complex erected on the grounds of Plecnik’s birthplace is a conglomeration of three residential blocks in brown stone incorporating two 19th century buildings creating an inner square as reference to the Roman forum once on this site.

The double aspect 6th floor three-bedroom apartment enjoys unobstructed views to a spectacular context: to the East over the roof tops of the old town, protrudes Plecnik’s National and University Library with the Medieval Fortress on the background; to the West, the Ravnikar’s brutalist towers of the Republic Square frame the view towards Tivoli Park as it slopes on to Roznik hill.

The project intensifies the double aspect character reorganising the layout around a polygonal object incorporating the open kitchen, bathroom, storage room and cupboards and a controlled palette of red terrazzo floor, deep red lacquered mdf panels and full height translucent glass panes that separate the private rooms with the remainder of the spatially fluid living space.