Ljubljana
Dormitory for students

Building expansion for living and leisure

The extension of two identical buildings with additional apartments, social and leisure rooms and a new access route is suitable for the use of serial and modular solutions.

General conditions

The building site consists of two identical student residences built in the mid-1980s in Vič, Cesta v Mestni Log 70-72, in the southern part of Ljubljana. Adjacent to the west is a sports park, the surrounding area is otherwise characterised by low-rise residential buildings, sports fields and green areas, with limited access for cars and limited parking space. Since 1949, the area has been used with numerous buildings to accommodate students of the University of Ljubljana and secondary school pupils.

The existing buildings each have 4 storeys and an identical structure. Each floor consists of 4 rows of apartments with 6 rooms and ancillary spaces for 12 students, arranged around a central atrium. The two buildings provide accommodation for around 450 people each. Access is via the green atrium and comprises 2 staircases; there are no lifts in the existing building.

The construction of the individual existing building consists of 4 building sections, separated by structural joints. The structure is made of reinforced concrete components (walls, ceilings) with a timber roof.

Design task

The design task is to vertically extend the existing building by 2 storeys. The extension is to provide 150 to 180 new student accommodation units of various types, e.g. individual apartments, shared apartments of various sizes, accommodation for students with children and for people with disabilities, as well as communal areas such as studios, rooms for teaching, events, fitness, etc.

The access route of the building must be brought up to current standards (accessibility, fire protection, dimensioning), also through partial or complete renovation, and the atrium and entrance area should be included in the considerations.

The existing roof structure, a wooden gable construction, is to be removed in the course of the extension. The new construction of the extension should follow a clear architectural and structural concept; the arrangement of the load-bearing elements and the load transfer must be sensibly related to the existing structure. The division of the 4 components of the existing building should be continued across the newly constructed volume, so that the load-bearing structure in the extension is also structurally decoupled along the existing building separation joints.