Festival dell'architettura magazine

The teaching approach in the studio of prof. Ales Vodopivec is primarily based on the research and understanding of cultural, historical, sociological and political context in relation to architecture and urban planning. This approach is clearly reflected also in the research project »Nova Gorica«, carried out with senior students in the year 2008-09. The work was divided in two phases: the first phase comprised of analytical work – understanding of historical context, ideas of modernist urban planning, influences of Le Corbusier and acknowledgement of original ideas of Edvard Ravnikar for the city of Nova Gorica. The research continued with analysis of the city development in the last 50 years in relation to political and economical occurances. One of important sources for this part was a book by Vinko Torkar, architect from Nova Gorica. It provided all the plans for the city that developed through this period.

Further, in cooperation with contemporary city planners, the reserach work shifted to analysis of contemporary conditions of the city and its main boulevard »Magistrala«: programme, traffic networks, relations between built and open space, between different green areas and public-private domain. In the same time, the original design ideas of the architect Edvard Ravnikar were tested in relation to contemporary conditions. The results opened up a possibility to define new development strategies, based on original plans. Students, at this stage working in teams, presented several suggestions for traffic arrangement, programme distribution and architectural/urban interventions. At the end of the phase, the work was presented to the public – city officials and other inhabitats. A large public discussion at this occasion was the base for the second phase of the research.
In the second phase students worked individually on particular sites along »Magistrala«. According to the results of the first phase, particularly to the new programme distribution that followed the needs of contemporary Nova Gorica, the focal point was the northern part of the city. Nevertheless, also southern and central parts of the »Magistrala« were considered as sites for architectural/urban interventions. In comparison to the first phase, the second was more design biased – the projects included University Campus with Headquarters, student housing, residential areas, Aviation Museum, main square, Law Court, hotel etc. They were presented in a large exhibition in the City Hall and accompanied with a public debate.