As most of you already know, last year's task was designing an architectural installation that would prove itself useful to the artists and artizans of Metelkova mesto (as we like to call it, Ljubljana's most creative part of town). The winning proposal was an urban stage boasting a striking white colour that tempted the graffiti artists - regular guests of the surrounding Hall of fame wall – to transform it using their colour sprays.

And so our White Dancer became a regular Transformer.

Here it is in June 2009 in all its virginal glory.

A week later, the first shy couple of drawings appear, ranging from signatures to more expressive pieces.

Our stage in end-July 2009, already starting to merge with the background. A bunch of details made with magic markers suggest the stage can be a handy canvas for its Friday night visitors.

In September 2009, a surprise awaits: our stage has entered its goth phase, presumably to honour a more alternative performance on it. Oh, about the chair facing the other direction? We have no idea. Given the occasion it was perhaps an Alice in Chains tribute or something.

In October 2009, the installation became an extension of the wall, hosting a kind of a 3D graffiti. Nice.

And finally, just a week ago, in June 2010 the stage decided to go black again. It is not completely covered as it hosted a DJ set during the summer breakdance & graffiti jam during which the walls were re-painted.

A year has passed since the stage was introduced to its new surroundings. We are happy to see it prosper and are curious to see the art it will be doned in in 2011.

“Already?” is the most common response by anyone who hears about our active preparations for this fall’s competition. Organizing a competition is much like moving. You can only imagine how much work it really takes, how grateful you are when someone offers help and what levels of excitement you can reach when it’s over successfully. And, yeah, there is some colorful language involved when you accidentally drop something and it (metaphorically) lands on your toes.

Anyhoo, what exactly is our team doing? We are busy preparing the task, which is still officially undercover but I can promise it will be very engaging. With a lot of help from the students of the Faculty of Social Sciences we’ve made a preliminary survey among the people who will be in direct contact with the new installation to better understand their needs and listen to their proposals. The results of these interviews revealed a variety of interesting aspects the residents miss the most in their urban surrounding. But hey, let’s keep some mystery for the fall, right? ;)

Another interesting part is visiting the faculties. We’re proud to say we’ve met some great professors, lecturers and professionals on a couple of well-known faculties in different countries who helped us with the task and have agreed to include the project in their curriculum. Other forms of cooperation will also take place and you can again expect the presentations on faculties.

Then there’s the visual. Certainly a fun task for our creatives, who are eagerly brainstorming, designing, writing, re-writing, snapping photos, programming and sometimes just sitting around drinking coffee and perusing design magazines to find the latest news to put on our Facebook page. By the way, yeah, we have just launched a new Facebook page and you’re welcome to check it out. It will soon be completed with said visuals (that will be also performed as posters, leaflets and banners) and we will proudly reveal a re-designed official page as well.

Last but not least: the extra activities. Last November, the second-placed proposal in the 2007 competition was permanently realized in front of the Tivoli sports hall (Hala Tivoli). The pavilion, attracting much attention from passers-by will most likely serve as a creative information spot – and certainly a nice reference.

So, now that we got the activities covered – what’s new with you? Drop us a line or connect with us, the more people the merrier the competition ;)

Trimo team wishes you a happy and imaginative New year!

Click on the image below to view the greeting or visit this link:

First day. Monday, the 13th of July 2009.The summer school started.Today, we are chosing our tutors. There are 8 groups, each with 2 up to 4 tutors.
 
At the very beginning we were given bags containing a book with info on the tutors themselves and about the issues we are going to work on. After that we met in the AA school's cantine.
There was a lot of people, I think somewhere between 60 to 80 persons. We say hello to each other. Some  of them are smiling, some of them are nervoused - what you can see by looking at their pale faces.

The presentation starts. At first you could hear a few of words from Shumon Basar and Natasha Sandmeier - Directors of the summer school.

Unit 1: "Domesti-city" presentation - tutors are Adam Furman and Marie de Monseignat - they showed a movie about the current situation across the UK. The issue was that people live on the streets and they need to transform it because all property was officially repossessed by the World Bank. If we were to choose Unit 1, we would be filming a movie about the situation - how people survive and transform the space. The tutors were AA students - they also taught AA summer school in 2008 (I will make a longer presentation about them in next post).

Unit 2: "Three square metres of London". The tutors are Steve Bates, an artist, musician and audio technician; Joshua Bonnetta,a multi-discplinary artist working with sound and moving image; and Douglas Moffat, a landscape architect. All three live in Motreal, Quebec. The workshops focus on applied skills/technologies - field recording, microphones, transmitters, video and audio editing. The analog is often celebrated over the digital.

Unit 3: "The archi-tective": "Their story begins on ground level, with footsteps. They are myriad, but do not compose a series. They cannot be counted because each unit has a qualitative character:  a style of tactile apprehension and kinesthetic appropriation. Their swarming mass is an innumerable collection of singularities" M. De Certeau (quotes taken from their presentation). The workshops are about creating "incidental urbanism" and making Diorama - a popular device to present the megatropolis. The tutors: Julika Gittner, an artist and an architect from London; Sarah Entwistle, graduated from AA in 2006, lives in London; Geraldine Dening, a qualified architect, lives in London.

Unit 4: "SUB_PLAN". The workshops focus on making a booklet about 'how to' exploit urban laws in the following steps:
1. Standards: questioning the rules;
2. Specifics: Applying the rules;
3. Speculations: Expanding the rules.

The tutors: David Knight, a designer, lecturer and researcher based in London; EUROPA - a group formed in 2007 by four graphic designers: Mia Frostner, Robert Sollis, Paul Tisdell and Rasmus Troelsen; Finn Williams, a planner based in London; and Ulf Hackauf, an independent architect based in Rotterdam.

Unit 5. "We are interested in investigating the forgotten, the incidental and the unseen...
...in exploring the large scale consequences of small things.(...)"
Small scale, large consequences - a monument to the miniature - this is the main idea of this Unit. The tutors: Inigo Minns, an architect from London and Onkar Kular who currently runs an experimental design unit at the College of Art, teaches architecture and spatial design at LMU and lectures worldwide.

Unit 6 covers making body installations - conetemporary urban fashion outfits. The preliminary construction strategies include: structure and skin, deconstruction and reconstruction, silhouette and volume manipulation, and suspension cantilevering. The tutors: Noam Andrews, graduated from AA, based in London; Rene Barownick, Director of Wunderkammer, an architecture and space consultancy based in Berlin and London; and Yeena Yoon, AA grad, currently works for Zaha Hadid Architects.

Announcing the units

I chose Unit 1 because it fits the current situation across the world. I thought: "Yeah! Let's make a footage!". But the first words of the tutors were: "You will work very hard during the three weeks - including Saturdays and Sundays." Hmm...

In the last days of August, the final act of this year's Trimo Urban Crash took place. An interactive workshop, attended by the short-listed students was held in Hostel Celica in Ljubljana, Wednesday August 26th through Saturday August 29th. Students from Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia visited the Slovenian sights, got to know some of the recognizable Slovenian architecture and created projects in the workshop led by Daan Roosegaarde, Dutch architect and a visual artist.

Daan in the Hostel Celica window

On Wednesday, the participants went on an excursion: they visited the most successful creations in the field of Slovenian living architecture. After seeing the Tetris residential complex by OFIS arhitekti group, students visited the new student housing complex Poljane. The visit was moderated by Matija Bevk of the Bevk-Perovič bureau, authors of said housing complex. A visit to the Trimo company followed where they were introduced to the production line, the company itself and its newest products. As the city of Novo mesto was just around the corner, they later visited its historic center, Tuš Center Novo mesto shopping mall, the photogenic valley of the river Krka and concluded their trip with a visit to the business complex of the successful family enterprise Akrapovič.

Housing Poljane

Pretorian - a modern sports complex in Novo mesto

Shopping centre in Novo mesto

Group photo with Slavojka and Igor Akrapovič

Thursday was all about studying. Daan Roosegaarde presented examples and shared his thoughts on the most successful projects of Studio Roosegaarde and lectured on the subject of interactivity. The students then received a task in which they could express their interpretation of interactivity in connection with the architecture of Ljubljana. After visiting the medieval Ljubljana and scouting for locations, students returned to Celica to start working on their group concepts.

Scouting in the center of Ljubljana

Working on the projects continued throughout Friday, as the ideas and concepts were formed into final presentations. In the afternoon, members of the three groups presented their works to the commitee, comprised of Daan, Miloš Ebner (R&D Director, Trimo) and myself. The works (see below) demonstrated a high degree of quality and opened some new questions regarding interactivity. If time permitted, we would gladly explore all of those ideas.

Group work

On the last day of the workshop, architectural guide Sašo Jankovič joined the students and together they visited some of the most recognizable examples of architecture in northern Slovenia: Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, Brdo Congress Centre, medieval city of Radovljica, city of Bled, IEDC Business School (work of Vojteh Ravnikar) and the city of Kranjska Gora. 

In Novo mesto, on Kandijski bridge

Inside Lectar, a traditional restaurant in Radovljica. "Lect" is similar to a honey cake.

Inside Brdo Congress Centre

IEDC Business School

The results of this year's workshop are three quality interpretations of relations between architecture and interactivity. The most successful project, made by Croatian and Italian students was awarded while all three projects are posted below for your viewing and commentary. And we are anxiously awaiting the next Trimo Urban Crash competition in 2011, which will surely offer some even more exciting locations and challenges.

Group 1 – interaction by touch


Everyone leaves tracks behind. By putting a substance on the city streets (in this case, flour) we can observe where people went, the way they walked, what shoes they wore – if any, etc. This intervention also involved many passers-by who, worried that the flour might soil their shoes, engaged in a conversation with the authors. Success!






Group 2 – interaction by sight


The sunlight casts different shadows during the day. Architecture can be used in a sophisticated manner by shaping the buildings’ exteriors so that they produce shadows in different shapes throughout the day, always surprising the observer. This project was recognized and awarded as the best of the three.








Group 3 – interaction by sound

In the era of various social media where people communicate intensively through the internet, this project suggests going out and trying to communicate in real life. Since talking to strangers is not as easy as through the computer, special pipes are introduced (as some kind of a materialization of the web). On each side of the pipes, there are microphones and loudspeakers attached. The pipes connect specific sounds of the city - bring voices from main squares to places far away, bring sounds of zoo to the city center, etc., thusly creating “United sounds of Ljubljana”.





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Mitja Vovko is an architect and R&D consultant for Trimo.
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Metelkova mesto celebrates her »sweet sixteen« these days, doing what she does best: organizing a wide variety of events to entertain her guests. Bright and colorful, fun and unexpected, with a unique taste in art and music; she truly is a teenager now. We raise our glasses in Metelkova's honor today and tomorrow. See you there! 

No rest for the graffiti artists on Metelkova. In one of our visits we noticed something different about our stage, but couldn't quite put our collective finger on it…

We're still trying to find out if this was a part of a performance by a band which our grandmothers would describe as »those darn hairy kids with their loud non-music« or if this colour was more suitable in the eyes of a particularly meticulous artist. I have to say it fits great in the newly painted surroundings, don't you?



I love the distraction on the hoop board. Who wouldn't start thinking of sugary goodness when concentrating on a throw? And oh, does it start blinking when cops are nearby? Kidding, sure (my own Evil Twin made me!), but seriously – kudos for making a great effort!

Today we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the start of the first moon landing mission. Neil Armstrong and Edwin »Buzz« Aldrin made the famous one small step for man on the lunar surface on July 20th 1969 while Michael Collins helmed the Columbia mother ship. The entire mission took eight days.

Now, when the gentlemen are approaching their 80th birthday (wow, already?), the rest of us are on a good track towards taking trips in space. A month ago, UK firm Foster + Partners won Virgin Galactic's international design competition therefore earning the privilege of designing world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport. Spaceport America will be located in New Mexico which is quite convenient since the extraterrestrials are said to be quite familiar with certain areas out there.

Photo source: Foster + Partners

Looking good! I'm already looking forward to annoying other passengers with memorable Star Trek quotes. *sits in the chair, finger pointing towards the monitor* Make it so.

Since the capital of The Great Britain is the noisiest among the other European capitals I have ever been to, I try to focus on the task I have in here, in London. The task is to answer my short, little question:

"What is AA?"

My blog will be about what the AA is and how I experience the school.

While I was at the Architectural Association's doors last year. I was wondering about how it could look like  to be a student of the school. And I can finally feel it, now. The first day passed. We have choosen our Tutors already. Everybody from the course has his first choice tutors. We were pleased with the announcement. Bravo for the AA's authorities. Everybody from the course has his own background. There are students from all around the world. Some of them study architecture, others want to do it. There are high school students as well as people who graduated from architectural schools.

When you go back to the first line of the post you will find out what could be inspiration for people who enjoy creativity. You could listen to the sound of the city. For me the city of London sounds like punk rock or drum and bass. Here are tons of sounds which merge into one track. It might frighten you a bit at the begining but in the end if you like picturesqueness and colourfulness you probably would like it.

So... I think you could also think about your own city like listening to a specific kind of music. Try to do that and you will not regret it. And remember:

Wherever you go, always keep the music within you...

Finally, the glorious summer is here (not that I could tell by looking out of the window since it's been pouring for the last three days) and with it the chance to waste our precious free time creatively. I combined this fact with the current pregnancy »trend« among my friends and colleagues, my undying love for all things geeky and decided it's time to check out some brain-teasing toys and gadgets, ready to shape our little ones into future architects, artists and builders. Or make the bigger ones grow down, whichever comes first. Below are the 5 most interesting thingamabobs I found, in no specific order.*

Possibly the greatest product out there this moment is the LEGO Architect series. In May, the Frank Lloyd Webber collection came out, enabling people of all ages to create their own Guggenheim and Fallingwater. A pretty sweet addition to the Landmark series, although it would be fine in my book if the series would also include some more non-American landmarks that aren't just Eiffel Tower and/or Tadj Mahal. Perhaps even fictional ones, similar to the totally-easy-to-build Minas Tirith that a very patient man named Patrick Acton is building from, in my estimate, about a gazillion matchsticks. A good idea for all you »matchstick men« out there who like to plan your activities for the following 3 summers :)

Another cute product is the Frank Gehry in pop-up book.  Similar to the Modern Architecture Pop-Up Book , these products offer fun times to the more lazy-oriented people who might find looking at pictures and facts more exciting than the above-mentioned activities. Frankly, I do not discriminate and oh, did I mention my birthday is coming up? *wink wink, ahem*

Then there's this Young Architect kit. The not-so-positive comments on it made me laugh hard. Even harder than the weird photoshop job they did for the cover. Also, as the commenter shared my immediate thought: if the makers decided to push the stereotype of a bespectacled architect, they should make sure the kid wears black for the photoshoot. Geez.

Ah, the kids nowadays have everything. I remember playing with cardboard boxes and introducing my dolls to their new shrubbery homes. Today's kids have modernist dollhouses! Wow! I changed my mind, I do want to grow up and be a pretty Barbie.

Finally, an idea that is not directly connected to architecture, but does involve fun and construction. Here's a guide on how to build a wooden dinosaur in your own back yard with simple ingredients like small dino model, Photoshop/projector, plywood and common household tools. You're welcome. And I hope I'm welcome too - on your dino's back. Where you will »surprise« me with one or more of these proposed gifts. Awww, thanks, you shouldn't ;)

* Please note I found the products below by pure chance and do not wish to promote anyone or make fun of their work. But if you want me to do either of that, feel free to send me the promo stuff, thanks :)

It's alive! Our stage is starting to fit in nicely with the rest of Metelkova as first couple of graffiti already appeared on it. They are pretty much scribbled around the sides and on the back but this is in my opinion the best angle:

The nights are getting warmer so I'm looking forward to seeing some colourful artwork on it soon. Volunteers?

Metelkova mesto finally has its new member - the stage now proudly stands on the platform, inviting inspired performers and graffiti artists alike.

Photo: Miran Kambič

It was introduced during an event last Thursday in which Trimo Urban Crash and Trimo Architectural Awards were presented. The event officially introduced the biennial Trimo Architectural Days. The formal event took place in the Old Power Station in Ljubljana while the closing »afterparty« was held in Metelkova. Let's go through the pictures, shall we?

Photo: Borut Peterlin

The event was quite well-visited. Trimo representatives, nominees for Trimo Architectural Awards, architects, city representatives and Trimo Urban Crash winners - everybody mingled at the informal meeting in front of the hall.


Drummers from the group »Bobnars United« invited the guests to take their seats and performed a somewhat dramatic intro to the awards ceremony. Indeed we felt like a tribe.

Photo: Borut Peterlin

After Tatjana Fink (Trimo General Manager) and Miloš Ebner (Trimo R&D Director) welcomed the guests with their speeches, it was time to present the Trimo Urban Crash awards. The projects were presented and described and the winners received their diplomas. From the left: Miloš Ebner, Tatjana Fink, Matej Mejak, Aleš Peternel, Francesca Bellina, Chiara Agosti, Alicja Chola and Jan Ledwon.

Photo: Borut Peterlin

Now it was the grown-ups' turn. Trimo Architectural Awards were presented to architects from Denmark, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain and Turkey who demonstrated examples of excellent architectural solutions performed with Trimo products. 114 projects from 14 countries arrived this year and 9 works were awarded.

Photo: Borut Peterlin

It were not only the architects who went home with something. Tomaž Furlan, representative of Metelkova mesto received a symbolic gift - a bucket filled with spray cans. For the purposes of creating new grafitti, of course. The guy in the picture wearing TAA shirt is Goran Medjugorac, the event's MC.


After some musical numbers by Boštjan Gombač and Janez Dovč the MC announced it's time for the informal part with some refreshment. The back curtain behind the projection screen opened and revealed tables with goodies, prompting many »ooohs« and »aaaahs«.


A yummy close-up. Kinda hard (and improper) to talk to so many people with your mouth full but hey, everybody was doing it :)


Before leaving for Metelkova, we admired the exhibition of the shortlisted Trimo Urban Crash proposals and Trimo Architectural Awards projects. The entire exhibition consisted of aluminium plates with the visuals printed onto them.


The last part of the event took place in Metelkova. Boštjan Gombač and Janez Dovč »christened« the stage with their performance - a mix of different music styles and songs. They whistled, played the accordion, clarinet, flute, saw, you name it. The atmosphere was quite magical. I recorded some of it, the paparazzo I am, and I will upload it as soon as possible.


Chiara and Francesca posed for us during the concert. Bellissimo! ;)


When the concert was over, Alicja and Jan sprung into action. Since the whiteness of the stage is so provoking, it is bound to be covered in graffiti eventually. Naturally, the authors can have the right to spray their work first.


»They made us do it, we swear!«


Trimo Architectural Days finished the next day on Ljubljana Castle. The morning activities started with a lecture by dr. Petra Čeferin who discussed affirming architecture. After a break, a round table followed, in which the architects Doc. MSc. Tadej Glažar, Aljoša Dekleva, Aljoša Kolenc, Miloš Ebner and industrial designer Nika Zupanc discussed the envelope as integral architectural component. Especially Mr Kolenc was responsible for some amusing moments with relevant opinions that went something like this: »If you don't mind, I would like to tell a joke. A ship went down in the ocean. An American, an Englishman and a Thai were the only survivors and they were stranded on a desert island. The American says: »Well, we need to get organized if we want to be saved. I am proficient in constructing radio equipment so I will build us a radio station. You, Englishman, build us a shelter. And you, Thai, take care of the supplies.« And so they started working. In two days, a decent radio was built, as well as a stable shelter. But the Thai never returned from the jungle. The American and the Englishman were worried so they went in the jungle as well, looking for him. They wandered the jungle the entire day but could not find him. So they turned around to return to their shelter. Just as they were getting out of the jungle, the Thai suddenly jumped in front of them from a nearby branch and yelled: »Supplies!!!« After the general laughter ceased, Mr Kolenc added: »Well, I don't know how exactly this is connected to the subject.«

After the round table, the afternoon activities like the tour of Ljubljana, calligraphy workshops etc. followed, but I cannot give you the inside scoop since it was high time for me to hit the old office again (where, apparently, I have been putting together this lenghty post until this very moment). But I hear the folk had quite a time despite the bad weather. All I can say is - hope the next Architectural Days are also as interesting as this year's.

On Monday the construction of the stage started on location. After the prototype passed with flying colours the hard-working Trimo men erected the stage on the Metelkova platform.

And I mean hard-working, since the entire thing was finished in three days. »Wawa-wiwa!«, as Borat would've put it so eloquently. Here's how it went down:

It's still naked, avert ye eyes!

Sparkling whiteness amidst lively colours

Men at work




Put your hands together for Cleansing Fluid & Vitamin Drink

If all goes well, we can expect the first musical performance this evening. I will keep you posted if you do me a favor and restrain your urge to do the rain dance until tomorrow.

You've seen it here first: the first glimpses of the prototype stage that is currently being constructed in the Trimo facilities.

*sniff* They grow up so fast...

The magnificent photo below is a »group portrait« of this year's silver medalists Aleš and Matej with their Trimo Trojan Horse. Of course, it's obviously photoshopped since the shadows are all wrong and I'm pretty sure there were no miniature gummibear people casually strolling around the last time I was on Metelkova.

Thanks guys, I had to share it since I fell out of the chair laughing upon seeing it! Or »FOOCL« in internet-talk, probably. NOTE: It is! =D

And because it's Towel Day (congratulations to all my fellow geeks out there!) we felt it was an opportunity to reveal a special surprise: we will not only include the short list in this year's catalogue, but also 6 extra projects. Whee! The extra projects were selected by individual jury members who noticed some creative ideas that had the potential of making the shortlist but were in the end replaced by other projects. Without further ado, the selected extra catalogue projects are:

code 09n21,
code 2elle,
code 81020,
code 85530,
code JTB84 and
code JW226.
 
Congrats to the authors! When the catalogue is finished we'll link the PDF version to the site so you'll be able to download it. Until then, excuse me, I'll be in my room eating gummibears and googling for weird internet abbreviatons. The power of self-suggestion truly is strong in this one...