{"id":45862,"date":"2024-12-09T15:59:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-09T14:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/nevidne-hise-klub-poslancev\/"},"modified":"2025-02-21T11:40:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T10:40:28","slug":"nevidne-hise-klub-poslancev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/nevidne-hise-klub-poslancev\/","title":{"rendered":"Invisible Houses – Delegates Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Delegates Club was the first building in Ljubljana which was built in the era of the new people\u2019s government immediately after the Second World War, when the social situation in the then People\u2019s Republic of Slovenia radically changed. It was designed in 1946\u20131947 by the architect Marko \u017dupan\u010di\u010d, a student of Jo\u017ee Ple\u010dnik. He had worked with Le Corbusier in Paris in 1940 on the Club Village project, among others. The Delegates Club was used for meetings, assemblies and events. It featured a hall, a restaurant, club rooms, a library with a reading room and several rooms for the accommodation of Members of Parliament. For a number of years after the Second World War, it was the main political and social centre in Ljubljana. The building was characterised by a clear design, with spaces meaningfully structured and linked into functional units with accentuated features. The sophistication of the building is reflected in the design of the fa\u00e7ades with small and large coffered windows, as well as in the columns, the structuring of the cubic shapes and walls, the use of different materials, etc. In his first major work, shortly after his return from the infamous Dachau camp, the architect \u017dupan\u010di\u010d showed all the knowledge he had acquired both during his studies with Professor Ple\u010dnik and during his work with Le Corbusier in Paris.<\/p>\n

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The Delegates Club building from the corner of Puhar Street and Pre\u0161eren Road, with the main entrance set back on the left side facing the street. Photo by Janez Kali\u0161nik, Museum of Architecture and Design Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Delegates Club was a two-storey building, built partially with a cellar, with a flat roof and a U-shaped floor plan, which, including the inner courtyard, formed an almost regular square of 39 x 36 m. The square was a common motif in \u017dupan\u010di\u010d\u2019s work. It is also found later in the floor plan of the Workers Club in Trbovlje and elsewhere. Between the Delegates Club and the National Gallery there was a park with mighty trees, and right next to the Gallery there was a passage leading from today\u2019s \u0160tefanova Street towards the Orthodox Church and Tivoli Park.<\/p>\n

Behind the central wing with the main entrance on Puharjeva Street there were two auxiliary wings on either side along the central inner courtyard. On the west side along Bleiweisova (now Pre\u0161ernova) Street there was a big hall with accompanying service areas, and on the east side along Tomanova (now Pre\u017eihova) Street, the administration on the ground floor and rooms on the first floor, a kind of hotel for Members of Parliament and guests. The main entrance was on Puharjeva Street. To the left of the entrance was a canteen with a kitchen and service areas, which continued towards the administrative wing. To the right of the main entrance was a club room with a buffet, toilets and a staircase leading to the first floor. On the first floor, above the entrance, there was a meeting room, to the left of which were toilets, the students\u2019 room and the Communist Party meeting room. To the right there was a library with two rooms for individual study and a large reading room. In the central part of the floor, a pool room opened onto the courtyard.<\/p>\n

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Salon of the Delegates Club, Inv. No. 18024, \u00a9 National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Numerous events were organized in the building from 1947 to 1988 when it was handed over to the National Gallery. In the initial post-war period, the Club was more of a closed venue, reserved for Members of Parliament and political appointees. The children of political bigwigs could go there with their parents to see films. Later on, however, the club gradually began to open up to the public and became an artists\u2019 meeting place.<\/p>\n

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Delegates Club before Demolition, View from Puharjeva Street, Neg. No. 18025, \u00a9 National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Undoubtedly, the Delegates Club building had to give way to the ambitions of cultural politics and to the annex of the National Gallery, for which Professor Edvard Ravnikar won an internal competition in 1989. This was also a time of political and social change and transition. Professor Ravnikar died in 1993 after an unfortunate fall in Savudrija, so his project, which was modified several times and which included the relocation of the original Robba fountain to the central wing of the National Gallery, was not fully realised according to his ideas. Much has been written about the competition[1]<\/a>. Gojko Zupan writes in Sinteza: [2]<\/a> “The jury, which was to select a suitable project to solve the gallery<\/em>\u2019s space constraints, was chaired by architect Marjan Tepina. The vice-chairmanship was entrusted to \u0160pelca \u010copi\u010d, PhD, who was assisted by the director of the Gallery, Anica Cevc, PhD, the painter Janez Bernik and the architects Matja\u017e Garzarolli, Jurij Kobe, Marko Pozzetto, PhD, and Marko \u017dupan\u010di\u010d. The last one, the author of the Delegates Club, resigned from the jury for health reasons. The jury was assisted by the rapporteur, architect Savin Sever, and the secretary, art historian Lojze Gosti\u0161a. The distinguished jury invited nine authors to participate. Their selection remains a mystery, as it does not correspond exactly to the list proposed by the Association of Architects.” <\/em>The architects invited to participate in the competition were Edvard Ravnikar (1907\u20131993), Milan Miheli\u010d (1925\u20132021), Stanko Kristl (1922\u20132024), Toma\u017e Medve\u0161\u010dek (1944), Milo\u0161 Bon\u010da (1932\u20132006), Igor Skulj (1946\u20132022), Branko and Ivan Kocmut (1921\u20132006, 1926\u20132009), Marta Tobolka \u010cupi\u0107 and Boris Podrecca (1940). Tobolka \u010cupi\u0107 and Podrecca renounced their participation, and the competition took on a purely local character between Professor Ravnikar and his students. In the competition projects, the authors, including Ravnikar, referred in one way or another to the \u017dupan\u010di\u010d building, the structure of which they originally intended to preserve. After the professor\u2019s victory and the many dilemmas that arose, a Report on the investigation of the load-bearing walls and ceiling structure in the building of the Delegates Club in Ljubljana was produced by ZRMK Ljubljana. It was commissioned on June 7, 1990[3]<\/a>, together with a geomechanical opinion. Both were negative, and in May 1991, IZTR drew up a demolition plan for the Club. The changes and related events are described in more detail in Alja Gra\u0161i\u010d\u2019s master\u2019s thesis[4]<\/a>. The exterior of the new National Gallery was built according to the implementation plans of March 1992. In 1996, an international workshop provided Sadar+Vuga architects\u2019 plans for the entrance hall and the complex where Robba’s fountain stands. The entrance hall was built four years later, and in 2008 the Robba fountain was finally installed.<\/a><\/p>\n

The final and complete solution of the National Gallery\u2019s spaces composed of three parts from three different periods and designed by three architects (Franti\u0161ek \u0160kabrout, Sadar+Vuga architects and Edvard Ravnikar) could have been better. Even our great architect Ple\u010dnik, whose works have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List for their integration of the past, modernity and local identity, advocated the principle that it only makes sense to demolish bad buildings and to preserve for posterity at least the quality architectural parts of buildings as a reminder of past times, striving to incorporate them inventively in the renovated new works. The competition organisers and the jury initially wanted to preserve \u017dupan\u010di\u010d\u2019s Delegates Club, probably also because of the cost of construction, but a series of unwise decisions by all the stakeholders in that particular space and time \u2013 art historians, architects and others \u2013 led to a final solution that is less than ideal. The architect \u017dupan\u010di\u010d yielded under the pressure of the tenderers and the experts, agreeing to demolish the Delegates Club. Unfortunately, he did not take a more aggressive stand in favour of his first major work and did not oppose to the jury\u2019s obvious favouring the other projects. \u0160tefanova Street became traffic-clogged and visually blocked in the direction of Tivoli due to the main entrance for visitors from Pre\u0161ernova Street and not also from \u0160tefanova Street, which could be partially corrected.<\/p>\n

\u017dupan\u010di\u010d\u2019s building of the Delegates Club, like Ravnikar\u2019s Modern Gallery, links Slovenian architecture with the influences of Ple\u010dnik and Le Corbusier. Slovenian architects were the most numerous among architects from all over the world, except for the French and the Swiss of course, in the studio of the guru of modern architecture, Le Corbusier, before the Second World War. There are many unrealised competition entries by Slovenian architects who worked for Le Corbusier, but very few realised projects. It is a pity that we cannot show to both the national and international professional public not only one, but two comparable, excellent Slovenian architectures and two excellent architects from the period when they were under Le Corbusier\u2019s influence. We could have two different architectural faces of Le Corbusier\u2019s influence in our country and a dialogue between two of Ple\u010dnik\u2019s students who worked for him in Paris.<\/p>\n

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In the courtyard of the Delegates Club, the right wing is dominated by a striking 8.5-meter-high square relief stone wall, featuring a small window opening. Photo by Janez Kali\u0161nik, Museum of Architecture and Design Collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Text by Bogo Zupan\u010di\u010d, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

Translation: Jerca Kos<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Final report on the work and conclusions of the evaluation committee for the conceptual internal competition for the project for the redevelopment of the premises of the National Gallery and the Delegates Club building, including the extension and connection between the two buildings and the external landscaping. List<\/em>, Association of Architects of Ljubljana newsletter, 6, 1990, pp. 22\u201328; Gojko ZUPAN, Four competitions in Ljubljana. Invited competition for the conceptual project for the redevelopment of the premises of the National Gallery and the Delegates Club building. Sinteza. Revija za likovno kulturo<\/em>, 87\u201390, 1991; Alja GRA\u0160I\u010c, The Temple of Fine Art \u2013 Competition for the New Wing of the National Gallery (1989), Master\u2019s thesis, University of Maribor, Faculty of Arts, 2021.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Gojko ZUPAN (1991, pp. 36\u201341.)<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Report on the investigation of the load-bearing walls and ceiling structure in the building of the Delegates Club in Ljubljana, ZRMK Ljubljana, commissioned on June 7, 1990.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Alja GRA\u0160I\u010c (2021), p. 72.<\/p>\n

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More about the Delegates Club<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit the Invisible Houses project<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Delegates Club was the first building in Ljubljana which was built in the era of the new people\u2019s government immediately after the Second World War, when the social situation in the then People\u2019s Republic …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45862"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45869,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45862\/revisions\/45869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odprtehiseslovenije.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}