PLEČNIK MEDAL for Small-Scale Architectural Realisation
2 Renovations - Jury's report
The creative team of Bevk Perović Arhitekti is recognised for two jointly submitted works. In the eyes of the Jury, they are prime examples of the approach to interventions into the anonymous existing architectural fabric enjoying no heritage or other protection, which has lately been gaining in currency. The recalibration from new developments towards the renovation of the existing built stock requires architects to perform research and seek and create opportunities for quality architecture within the existing building shells or mere parts of buildings, which often lack any degree of quality.
In the national centre for the comprehensive rehabilitation of the blind and partially sighted (NC-CRSS), the approach employed by the architects in creating "a room within a room" skilfully circumvented the conventional atmosphere of a hospital space and provided an environment which is functional and at the same time agreeable to the user. They achieved this independently of the architecture in which the space is sited. A careful and attentive arrangement of open and closed spaces transcends the notion of designing an interior and goes on to create the architecture of a home, a house, and a small village all at the same time. Together with the considered choice of materials and a sensibility for the detail, it ensures a stimulating environment on the path to rehabilitation for the users.
While the intervention in the centre for the rehabilitation involves arranging volumes within the floor plan quite independent of the existing envelope, design studio Kabinet 01 is designed in section. The concrete slab is the only new intervention between two industrially designed facades, preserved and sparingly augmented by the architects, who in this way acknowledge the significance and quality of the anonymous architecture.
In both projects, an equilibrium is established between rough industrial elements and a pure finishing conducive to habitation and marked by a consistent emphasis on visual commitment, a touch of rawness, and the concern for the detail. The architects' high regard for the task, regardless of its size and scale, is of further particular significance.
