Apartment House Gradaška

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Photo © Hisao Suzuki

Residential

Architects: Sadar+Vuga

Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia
Year: 2007

The size, location, shape and spatial organisation of the Apartment House Gradaška outrank all the neighbouring, almost village-like constructions. It is an independent building. There are twelve different and individualised apartments in it.

They all cover the area of several storeys or between-storeys. The central living area is always divided into one and a half or two storeys. The vertical arrangement of these apartments is thus highlighted, which, besides the open ground plan and the large glass surfaces, exposes the building's urban and metropolitan character. The apartments form a unity which resembles the three-dimensional Tetris.

The façade is made of three different materials: a stone facing, which outlines individual apartments, a combination of reflexive and transparent glass panels which either reflect the surrounding area into the apartment or reveal the interior of the apartment to the surrounding, and a filigree base whose ornamentation throws a reflection of the building's greens to its façade.

This façade functions as a kind of a Switching Surface between the structure and the living character of the metropolitan vertical lofts, on the one hand, and the almost village-like atmosphere of the area on which the Apartment House Gradaška is located.