The pedestrian and cycling bridge in Irča vas  proves to be an example of respectful integration of architecture into the natural environment. With its subtle presence and sensitively designed form, it blends unobtrusively into the beautiful landscape along the Krka River.
The slender suspended structure, which is only 42 centimetres high, curves over the river over a span of 130 metres, allowing it to blend harmoniously into the natural environment without encroaching on the peripheral zone.
The materials used in the construction of the bridge have been carefully chosen to blend in aesthetically and texturally with the surroundings. The bold and thoughtfully designed concrete structure, complemented by steel and wood, creates the feeling that the bridge is not just an artistic or engineering structure, but becomes part of nature.
The new footbridge, with its design, the materials chosen and the thoughtful use of light, not only creates a sustainable and functional whole, but also conjures up an artistic expression that enhances the natural environment and allows visitors to experience and appreciate the beauty of the River Krka.

Authors: Blaž Budja, Rok Jereb, Marjan Pipenbaher in Tomaž Weingerl,
Landscape architecture: dr. Dušan Stupar
Jereb and Budja arhitekti, Ponting inženirski biro and Pipenbaher inženirji

Photography by Blaž Budja

To many of us, residential neighbourhoods are the setting of the most playful times in our youth. However, for a neighbourhood to become such a setting, it requires an appropriate combination of public, semi-public and personal areas. Furthermore, it has to make it possible for various generations and profiles of people to enjoy living there.

The feel of an integrated multi-layered town has been instilled into the neighbourhood as its central theme. The building volumes are of understated design, setting the frameworks for the varied green atria. Motorised traffic is limited to create the possibility of a quality green and safe environment surrounding the home. The interconnected atria are dedicated to various themes. During a walk through the neighbourhood, the buildings offer diverse views of the life unfolding between them and the surrounding natural sights. The overall effect is a picturesque one, owing to the intertwining of a discreet yet tactually and decoratively diverse façade and the ever-changing nature.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja, Miha Dobrin
co-authors: Maruša Trnovec, Manica Lavrenčič, Petra Stojsavljević, Nina Majoranc, Anja Šuštar, Sara Zorzut
landscape architecture: Tomaž Stupar, dr.Dušan Stupar, Katja Senekovič, dr.Marko Dobrilovič

photography: Blaž Budja, Miran Kambič

In designing the house, we wanted to build on the local tradition; to recall the pile-dwelling culture in the marshes, and the traditional Slovenian balcony, i.e. ‘gank’. Each unit has its own central living room, merging into the marshes through the terrace. The first floor ‘gank’ – continuous balcony – also serves as a canopy and simultaneously as the transverse axis at the entrance to allow passage along the house. The vertical batten profile reminds of the lush vertical vegetation surrounding the wetlands. The wooden façade part and the thin plaster part are strictly separated into two compositional elements, the plastered part being the solid basis onto which the wooden part is propped, resulting in a lace-like screen to wooden outdoor terraces. The semi-detached house at Ljubljansko Barje is set on concrete piles and the base plate, and constructed of cross-laminated timber panels.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja, Nina Majoranc, Maja Slapernik, Zala Likavec Perovšek

In Čatež, the architect’s journey across the picturesque Dolenjska hills begins and ends by evaluating the existing situation. From each corner of the village, the views of Zaplaz – a pilgrimage site above Čatež – are framed with the rounded image of the hilly landscape. The two churches and three belfries accentuate the joining curves of hills and valleys. The concrete hall with a “double-T slab” façade that contains the entrance to the management premises serves as a charming passe-partout to the completed complex. The building attracts visitors and sets the factory’s grand design into a scale that is yet deemed bearable to an individual in relation to the surrounding built and natural environment. TEM Čatež is a company whose activity is based on excellent interpersonal relations. The owners seek to shape an environment in which the individual’s wellbeing is part of a whole that is reflected in above-average business achievements. The new working environment serves as proof that a factory, too, can be a space tailored to individual’s requirements.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja, Nina Majoranc
landscape architecture: dr. Dušan Stupar

Women’s Shelter is a unique house in many respects. At the boundary of two urban areas – just beside the main city cemetery, separated from the remainder of the city by a park – it is easy to see how design following function can incite and foster the feeling of safety. The architectural and functional design of the building is clearly discernible in the façade segmentation. There is a caesura dividing the ground floor with the public area from the first floor with the sleeping quarters. The façade envelops the house from two sides with two materials: concrete with timber cladding, which speaks (to us) delicately and communicates with the glass layer as the other envelope. Both materials protect the interior carefully. The pattern of windows directs and hides or opens the views, thus establishing communication with the environment, and suggesting the Woman’s Shelter is no ordinary house. Rather, it is an institution that ensures protection and homely warmth.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja, Nina Majoranc

The building of the INCE Mengeš Occupational Activity Centre raises the issue of introducing contemporary architecture in the historical fabric of the rural environment. This is why in its design, the streamside house on a distinctly elongated plot follows the typology of a village core and the organisational elements of old farmhouses with a division between the roadside farmyard and the streamside private garden. Using the typically Slovenian traditional construction elements – gank or balcony, the roof shape and timber – we visually reduced the size of the building to bring it closer in scale to the nearby houses. Harmonious with the village typology, the dynamic gable roof rounds the programme off nicely. The surroundings and landscaping were designed to soften the shapes and geometries. Evading the existing vegetation and intertwining with the built edges, a subtle stitch was created between the facility and its natural environment.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja
landscape architecture: dr. Dušan Stupar

The Stopiče Sports Hall is our way of answering the question of how to position contemporary public infrastructure amidst the typical Slovenian countryside. Architecture responds to the “archetypal” situation comprising rural houses, a belfry and green hills with a subtle design and clear orientation of building structures and materials. The hall’s service programme is located under the circumferential cornice, which is attuned to the relief alongside the road. This results in the sports hall large scale being amended in relation to the village houses, the building rising above the hilly landscape like a substantial wooden outbuilding.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja

The annexe is connected to the existing building by offsetting the floor plan dimensions. Its eastern part terminates the promenade along the front of the building. The upper floor features a terrace with a flower garden, which is intended for occupational therapy. The final part of the annexe façade follows the gable roof shape, thus connecting the design of the new part to the existing one, while the timber façade cladding creates a homely feeling. Our annexe to the Šmarje Pri Jelšah Home for the Elderly is a successful example of designing a facility that integrates the predominantly unbridled construction of several decades into an architectural whole.

authors: Rok Jereb, Blaž Budja