Maribor is the second largest and most important city in Slovenia. It stretches along both banks of the full-flowing Drava River, just 16 kilometers from the border with Austria, and is deservedly considered the most important industrial, economic and cultural center of the country. Not the least source of income for Maribor is inbound tourism - every year tens of thousands of people visit the city, famous for its medieval castles, wine-making traditions and the nearby ski resort. However, in just two years the tourist flow promises to increase many times over - in 2012 Maribor will become the European Capital of Culture.
The tradition of choosing one of the cities of the European Union as the cultural capital of the year was invented in the late 1980s and has become very popular. For tourists this is a unique chance to see performances of the world's best bands and the most interesting exhibitions in one city, for cities it is a reason to receive additional investments and significantly update their cultural territories. For example, the famous House of Music was built in Porto on the occasion of acquiring the status of the European Capital of Culture. Slovenian Maribor decided to keep up with its predecessors and at the beginning of this year announced an open international competition for three objects at once designed to become the symbols of the city in 2012 - the embankment, the pedestrian bridge and the gallery.
The terms of reference, developed with the participation of the International Union of Architects and the Municipality of Maribor, were distinguished by the maximum detail. In particular, the new building of the art gallery was supposed not only to become the second building of the existing museum, but a kind of headquarters for the 2012 European Capital of Culture, and after that, for many years to come, preserve the status of one of the main centers of urban attraction, turn into a unique family cultural - a leisure center where visitors of all ages can find educational and creative activities. The wishes for architecture were also formulated: a new art gallery should be open and easily accessible, possess a dynamic form and an ultra-modern technological "filling". Last but not least, this is why a whole block in the very center of Maribor was allocated for the gallery, bounded by Ribiška, Koroška Cesta, Pristaniška streets and the Drava embankment. The terms of reference ordered to place an exhibition complex with a total area of 8 thousand square meters in the center of the composition, and supplement it with a museum for children, creative workshops, a center of modern architecture, open public areas and underground parking.
Vladimir Bindeman's team divided the existing quarter diagonally and on this conditional straight line connecting the intersection of Ribiška, Koroška Cesta streets and the intersection of Pristaniška and Vojašniška streets, placed the main exhibition space. It is enclosed in a transparent spherical volume, a kind of airship, surrounded by auxiliary rooms. These rooms are combined into two buildings, which face the streets with traditional rectangular volumes, and towards the spheroid - with smooth curves, in plan resembling hands, as if carefully supporting a fragile substance. The "arms" are connected to the exhibition space by passages on different floors, so that all the premises of the complex are connected through this central transparent core. The roof of the right "arm" is a giant pedestrian ramp, while the left building has a flat, unexploited roof, on which there are rainwater collection devices and solar panels that store energy for the needs of the building. In the cladding of the spheroid itself, the architects proposed using a special matte coating made of energy-saving glass with a dimming function, which would protect the works of art from too intense sunlight.
The main facade of the complex opens onto the Drava embankment and the historic center of the city. The arms supporting the spheroid spread apart, as if inviting visitors and tourists strolling along the embankment to enter the museum's inner square or climb an open staircase to the last exhibition floor and admire the beautiful views from a height of 29 meters. On the opposite side from the embankment, next to the complex, a landscape and sculptural park is laid out, which simultaneously plays the role of "green lungs" of the gallery and a place for placing exhibitions in the open air. The facade facing the park is designed as a vertical garden - the architects tried to enhance the impression of the building merging with the surrounding nature, and a walk-through arch was made in it, connecting the square and the inner square. You can also get to the square from the Ribiška and Pristaniška streets perpendicular to the embankment, so that access to the heart of the museum complex is provided from all four sides, and the main requirement of the terms of reference for the accessibility of the new cultural center from different points of the city has been fulfilled.
All exhibition spaces are grouped in a spheroid suspended by trusses above the museum square. The architects designed five exhibition floors, the first two of which are intended for permanent exhibitions, the next two for temporary exhibitions, and the uppermost one will be converted into a hall dedicated to the history and master plan of Maribor. The spiral of the ramp is passed through the "airship", which allows you to move inside the exhibition spaces, bypassing the side passages. All other functions, such as a children's center, creative workshops and the Architectural Center are located in separate buildings, each of which has its own entrance, but is connected to the spheroid by galleries at different levels. But the storage facilities of the museum are located on the underground floor, on the same level with the parking lot. The underground floor is arranged under all the buildings of the gallery, and due to the difference in the relief, its height changes from 3 meters in the parking lot to 6 meters in the storage facilities.
A double-track ramp for the delivery of exhibits was organized from the side of Ribiška Street, where an underground parking was also entered. But the main entrance for pedestrians is located on the side of the embankment, in building A, in plan resembling a rectangle with one rounded corner. In order to once again emphasize the openness of the gallery to the city, at the level of the first floor, the walls of this volume are made of transparent glass, and starting from the second floor they are cut by uneven "stalactites" of windows (which, by the way, instantly remind us of the Forum of the Duke and de Meuron in Barcelona). In the center of the lobby there is a huge grand staircase suspended by steel cables from the ceiling structures. An information center and ticket offices are located in the space between its marches, and souvenir and book shops are located under the stairs and around it. And so that a person looking into the gallery from the street does not think that the entire first floor is occupied by trade, the lobby is decorated with a minimum number of partitions. From the lobby, the main staircase leads to the exhibition halls, the museum library, as well as to the cafe and the club, the latter directly adjacent to the place of the main opening of the two "arms" buildings on the embankment of the Drava River - this will not only provide visitors with beautiful views, but also will allow institutions to work in their own mode.
Buildings B and C, in which all the necessary additional functions are located, are narrow interlocked parallelepipeds, the walls of which are also "split" by triangular transparent inserts. In fact, this is the rear facade of the complex, the shutter that reliably fixes the ephemeral spheroid in the alignment of the arched buildings. The architects have thoroughly thought out the connections of the buildings with the main exhibition space: both the children's center (teachers will be able to conduct small excursions and educational lectures) and creative studios have their own galleries-transitions. The premises of the children's center are organized in such a way as to have direct access to the park, and in building C, where the architectural center is located, the last floor is reserved for storage rooms and an area of informal communication.
But, perhaps, the main advantage of the complex designed by "Architecturium" lies in its scale of the surrounding buildings. The most striking architectural elements of the composition - the spheroid and the "arms" that embrace it, are made of the most transparent materials, leveling the pressure of these volumes on low historical monuments located in the neighborhood, while the main buildings, "holding" the corners of the new quarter, support their structure and rhythm. Modern in composition and technology, the new art gallery organically coexists with its environment and is able to become its integral part.
