To start, I would like to state that this specific project was the most conceptual project I have ever did. We didn´t had a project to do, but we had to search for one.
We started by choosing an area or a concept to work with. I noticed a similarity with Lisbon railway, so I decided to work on it. I observed that it there wasn´t enough paths, thresholds and the people had to cross it illegally. Besides that, there was many moments on the city where the housing and living suffered. There were critical points and barely any protection.
There were studies with models and with drawings. Testing how conceptually the railway works and in the end the result was a model simulating the room within. This model was a simplification of ideas about the analysis of this through an exchange student.
The basis for the model were: The train path is in constant movement and no one know where to look at because no one knows where it is. The room is wherever people want to see it happens. A bridge can be wherever the people need it to be.
So, the model emerges. With all the lines and all the points. It is a small structure that symbolizes all the paths that need to and already have in Ljubljana.

For the second phase, we were asked to look deeper to our projects. It was time to start imagining these ideas and try to “transport” to the city. For that I went to see some movies where imagination is real, even more real than real life itself. I saw La La Land, Grave of fireflies and Blade Runner. All movies with different stories and different eras. Grave of fireflies, a movie of the past about a Childs’ imagination during a time of distress about a time of desperation and a tentative of helping for a path to a better world; La La Land, a movie of the present where the characters, like an architect, desire a better and deeper path for their lives; and, Blade Runner, a movie of the future where the dream only starts to appear in the middle of the movie where a character is trapped in a room with a lot of imagination but no real
experience (she architects the world).
This movies weren´t meant to be the result. They were a tool for the next part. Now was the time to investigate the feelings about the space around me. Each mood dictates an expression.
The final basis for this phase was an examination of experiences and emotions on the space and the result was a model where we can move blocks in a way that make us feel better. There are other references that might explain it. PONSI, Andrea, City Scapes; WOODS, Lebbeus, The Alternative World.
This model is a room with lines (that were recycled from the previous model) and put into little spaces. The user can move the lines and can create thresholds and new paths in the new city. This new city can be seen through several angles but in way that is harmonious. Complementing the model, it also exists a drawing that also reflects the nature of spaces in similar ways. It can also be seen in different angles and details connecting with Lisbon and Ljubljana railway.

For the last phase, there was needed a place where all these ideas were put and brought into a beginner of a project. There wasn´t much time to detail it. The second phase ended with a selection of a space to work with.
This location is in border with Bežigrad and Šiška. This one is a critical point of the city, but it is a hidden place.
When I was in Ljubljana, I noticed the people (and children) crossing the railway to go to Bežigrad district through that dangerous place. There is a connection, but it takes longer to get there.
So, the proposal is to create a path to the other side of the railway and end in a place that will be a small park to people relax and to children play.
In this park there will be three boxes. And each box has a view to different places: The mountains, the castle and to Tivoli park. These boxes are tree houses so they can be elevated to these viewpoints. The boxes work as shelters and protect the people of the disturbances of the railways.
What stroked me was the lack of spaces where children can play in safety in that area. There it was an empty space with a lot of unused potential. Sure, there is Tivoli but in this location that are still a lot of local and Erasmus living and even a primary school full of children.
There are problems such as the noise, the closeness to industrial buildings, the lack of shelters and paths but there are many potential points, like the trees, the views, the access to the other place, a place where people can relax near home, etc.
This culmination of a semester full of concepts and hypotheses resulted in a simple project where, I hoped, it serves as a place where people can build their own world through lines. It just tries to be a place where a child can imagine other paths and spaces.
The cultivation of context was important. We see the city in different times with different perspectives. The city is composed by several elements and should work for anyone. Ljubljana is a beautiful city and even though it has some critical points, it doesn´t stop being a secure place of comfort.

#od sobe do mesta – raziskava prostorskih razmerij #kontekstualna občutljivost #arhitekt kurator