project Promenada Velenje Pedestrian Zone type open competition, first prize year 2012 status built 2014

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1 PROMENADA VELENJE The Plan Awards, Public Space winner Iconic Awards, Architecture best of best The International Architecture Award S.ARCH Award special mention European Prize for Public Space finalist Architizer A+ Awards, Architecture + Water finalist Architizer A+ Awards, Public Park finalist 10 of The Best Tourist Spots for Landscape Architecture in Europe 3rd place Leaf Awards, Urban Design of the Year shortlisted Plečnik Award shortlisted Piranesi Award nomination Velenje is designed in fifties based on the Modernist ideal of the city in a park. Through renovation, the wide straight existing pedestrian walkway in its centre, that was created by closing the erstwhile traffic road almost thirty years ago, underwent a transformation into a kind of sequence of micro-ambients, of locally widened surfaces connected by a slightly twisting narrower path. These instances of widening feature attractive concrete urban elements, whose careful arrangement slows down the users and is framing the space for the additional programme content to take place over time. With the transformation, the Promenada is turning into a main event axis of the city, its centre being placed into the new amphitheatre along the river. The river Paka is a torrential river, which means that its watercourse swells up significantly a few times a year. As a consequence, the river, which is an attractive element of any city, flowed out of sight somewhere down below. By narrowing the bridge and placing it off the former axis, the space for the construction of an amphitheatre is recovered. It becomes the centre of the activity in the city, and the river may once again claim an important spot in the townspeople's consciousness. A new walkway ends with a parking facility. The slight branching out in the floor area design reflects the sitting of the building among the existing trees, which had all been left intact. The front facade features a very restrained design and references the original towns architecture. The remaining circumference of the car park seeks the connection with surrounding nature instead. Individual facade panels are parabolically bent out of the building plane. Beside the interesting shape, the result is also great static strength, which obviates the need for any additional support. The repetition and careful arrangement of these lightweight facade elements produces a constant play of light and shadow, giving the building a soft appearance among the surrounding trees.

2 project Promenada Velenje Pedestrian Zone type open competition, first prize year 2012 status built 2014 size m2 budget EUR client Velenje Municipality location Velenje, Slovenia photo Miran Kambič

3 project Promenada Velenje Pedestrian Zone type open competition, first prize year 2012 status built 2014 size m2 budget EUR client Velenje Municipality location Velenje, Slovenia photo Miran Kambič

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6 project Promenada Velenje Pedestrian Zone type open competition, first prize year 2012 status built 2014 size m2 budget EUR client Velenje Municipality location Velenje, Slovenia photo Branko & Nik Naveršnik

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8 project Promenada Velenje Pedestrian Zone type open competition, first prize year 2012 status built 2014 size m2 budget EUR client Velenje Municipality location Velenje, Slovenia photo Miran Kambič, Edita Fric, Stefan Vogler, Roman Bor