Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia
Ljubljana, Slovenia
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, whose task is to promote the movement and flow of capital in the Republic of Slovenia, is conceived as a "megastore".
In encompassing consultation, information and training departments and services, it acts as a local lead-in to economic globalization. What was involved in this project was the rehabilitation of the institution's offices housed in a strictly rationalist low-rise building, and the addition of a series of semi-public amenities (restaurants, library, lecture rooms, exhibition areas, and archival reading room).
Project attempts explicitly to do away with any barriers between the public, semi-public and private features which are all present in this hybrid design.
By retaining the huge public forecourt, the programme along the existing building is verticalized, thus giving it a new façade, designed like boxes piled on top of each other. Fitted between the two fronts, as if the public forecourt had been suddenly straightened, is a vertical hall, espousing the principle of continuity and interaction between the two parts of the programme.
