Covering of the Remains of Church of St John the Baptist in Charterhouse Žiče
Architecture Rok Žnidaršič Jerneja Fischer Knap Samo Mlakar Katja Ivić Dino Mujić Data Covering of the Remains of Church of St John the Baptist in Charterhouse Žiče and a Temporary Lapidary Category: Large-Scale Architectural Realisation Authors: Rok Žnidaršič, Jerneja Fischer Knap, Samo Mlakar, Katja Ivić, Dino Mujić Collaborators: Matija Plevnik, Tomaž Klančnik, Andrej Hribar, Tomaž Habič, Vlatko Bosiljkov, Ivan Stepišnik, Janez Mrše Jaka, Marsel Osmanagić, Klemen Špehar Location: Charterhouse Žiče by Slovenske Konjice, Stare Slemene Year of realisation: 2022 Gross area: 355 sqm Investor: Municipality of Slovenske Konjice Overall investment: €2.5m Type of commission: Public tender Web site: https://www.pida.si/nagrade/nagrada-piranesi-2022
Photographs Miran Kambič
PLEČNIK AWARD in the category of public space
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Charterhouse Žiče - Jury's report Not just in the Slovene space but beyond, the covering of the remains of Church of St John the Baptist in Charterhouse Žiče represents a new approach in the consideration of architectural interventions into the fragile and historically rich heritage of ruins. Within the scope of different expert positions ranging from a conservative approach based on the endeavour to reinstate the historical roof, to the preservation of the nostalgic appearance of the ruin, the authors successfully bridge the two extreme and seemingly irreconcilable points of this continuum with a contemporary, open, and abstract architectural language. The intervention doesn't accentuate the contemporary angle but rather leverages a close reading of the ruin, and a patient collaboration with the conservator and a broad team of associates from various fields. With its ability to create the new, the not-yet-existent, architecture becomes the connective tissue of the past and the present, of the presence and the absence. It is absence that constitutes the project's fundamental idea. From the entrance side of the charterhouse, the half-roof recreates the impression conveyed by the erstwhile dominant and engages with the void of the irreproducible past. The fully functional protection of the church walls and the re-establishment of the space which is to keep the heritage alive become interlocutors in an unequivocal dialogue with the long and variegated story of Church of St John the Baptist from its inception to its passage into the state of ruin. The high-tech solution is silent, the opening and closing of the roof surface is a slow process featuring an absence of sound. It demands patience from the visitor. The intervention does not strive to produce fascination but rather to foster respect. It stands and moves in the silence of the Carthusian Order. The projects exudes innovation and sensibility. The path leading the visitor develops through the gradual experience of discovery. After a moment of pause in the church nave, it enters a spatial loop of sorts which encompasses the ascent to the top of the walls followed by a slight descent into a narrow passage leading to the panoramic window. Its placement is not random, the window finds itself at the junction of the preserved historical substance and the new development. At this carefully chosen point unveiling a view of the still buried walls of the monastery, the ever-present dialogue between the new and the old is concluded. The covering of the remains of the church in Charterhouse Žiče unveils the power of the contemporary architectural language: it shapes a narrative compliant with the sensibilities and creativity of bygone periods. In the times when the shared space is being pauperised and the intellectual horizons simplified, it exemplifies a committed professional and creative masterstroke.
