Apparently there are some joker-architects out there. This made me laugh today – architect Jakob Tigges submitted a proposal into an international competition over how to develop a site of a Nazi-built airport near Berlin, suggesting a mountain should be built there. As he comments, he »chose the idea of a mountain precisely because it can't be done. Instead it'll awaken people's imaginations.« What can I say, good luck Mr Tigges! :D

And they complain about some houses standing out...                   (source: spiegel.de)

In other competition-related news, we finally managed to get through all the submitted projects and the final number stopped at 147. Impressive work you guys. I'm eager to see what your creative minds have conjured up, especially since the projects came from countries that are no stranger to interesting architecture. Sceptical? Well allow me. For your Friday viewing pleasure, I give you: Italian Jubilee Church, Serbian plastic bottle house, Slovenian honeycomb housing complex, Czech dancing building, Polish drunk house, probably the first european pyramid in Bosnia, Hungarian boat-inspired building, the notorious shopping centre in the UK, Croatian modern-looking church and its sci-fi inspired "rival" from the USA, some examples of Danish building ideas, a Portugese music house, the Macedonian telecommunications building that raised some eyebrows, an office building in Germany, crazy "floating" building from Singapore, a lovely national assembly building in Bangladesh and... well... don't even get me started on Japanese examples.

As you probably figured out, those were the 17 countries that the students submitted their projects from (as far as we can tell from the postmarks). In less then one month the race will get more exciting as it will be known which ones made the shortlist. But, let's not jump ahead of ourselves yet because we might break a leg – and since it's practically weekend, we wouldn't want to stay in bed all the time, right? :) See ya!

Lately I've been noticing a lot of architecture-related stuff going on - and that's saying something, since I'm living in the city that its residents see as notoriously boring at most  times. Happy with the results of our competition (building all the submitted projects would probably construct a small Slovenian village - and what a crazy village it would probably be!) I took a little afternoon break for visiting Ljubljana's centre.

It was Shrove Tuesday so there were some people in masks and costumes walking around, some of them undoubtedly disguised as architects. Or not. Who knows. Anywho, I was quite taken aback when seeing the reconstruction work done on the Opera house since its new part seemed to sprout of the construction site all of the sudden. Many parts of the city are or will soon be labeled »under construction«, as the nearby Kolizej will eventually transform from a residential building into a concert/opera hall. The area around the main train and bus station will evolve into a business area, its plans promising to look quite futuristic. Also the underground parking lots are finally coming into realisation with the archaeologist currently excavating and examining the area of Kongresni park.

And that's not all. Two interesting architectural exhibitions also opened, one organized by the largest Slovenian expert association, Ljubljana architectural association, called Arhitektura Inventura (Architecture Inventory) and the other, called 11x ena hiša (11 times one house), organized by Hiše magazine. The first one exhibits 99 projects selected by the members of the association and serves as an overview of the future Slovenian architectural guidelines. The second shows 11 examples of single-family houses and spotlights some of the questions that architects face when designing this type of house.

I find both exhibitions interesting not only because of the creative and unique design solutions of some of the works but also because of the way the viewer is faced with them. Especially in the case of Arhitektura Inventura you don't get very familiar with the concept of designing each work, rather, it is there and you can think whatever you like of it. Maybe not a bad idea, since I can't help but overhearing some complaints from time to time about architects just trying to outdo oneanother with their work, not considering the cultural landscape. But hey – it can be thought about as a form of art so why should everything be so similar? After all, if you dress in an unconventional fashion, others might take you for a weirdo. It's your choice.

Speaking of cultural, I should drop by the library soon to finally check out the guide to Ljubljana's architecture that won one of the Slovenian book fair award for the most beautiful book. First get to know your own »village«, than the world, right?

Whew, last two weeks were really something. We were busy counting all your submitted projects, ironing out the last of the wrinkles, evaluating the fruits of our work and, in general, preparing for the so-called round two. Ladies and gentelmen, allow me to invite you into the room where we keep all your projects in:

»Jinkies!«, as Velma would say. Your response surprised as all, as around 140 projects came in from 17 countries (as far as what we can tell from the postmarks). Overall, we're really glad about the good news travelling fast as visitors from 47 countries were visiting our site regularly.

So you guys deserve a big shout-out for all your hard work and dedication. Great job! Keep your fingers crossed in end-March when the jury ends their session and the short-listed projects are known. And yes, don't worry, we'll keep you posted all along :)