location: Seča pri Portorožu, Slovenija | Seča near Portorož, Slovenia
client: Olimpijski komite Republike Slovenije | The Olympic Committee of the Republic of Slovenia
area: 6900m² (4000m² - vrt| garden)
design period: 1996
construction period: 1996-1998
project team:
Landscape architecture: Ana Kučan
Collaborators: Damjan Černe, Gregor Vreš
Architecture: Maruša Zorec, Robert Potokar
Collaborators: Nevenka Grubješič, Tanja Košuta, Damjana Zaviršek
Structural Engineer: Anjo Žigon
The plan originates from the present circumstances, given that here and there the former spatial concept was still legible and that the trees as the principal element are preserved. The site lies on the slope of a hill covered with cultivated terraces and turned towards the salt-pans. The extraordinary location required a restrained approach in both concept and details. The structural renovation is arranged within the existing spatial framework and nothing intrudes into the external landscape. On the contrary, it attracts the characteristic landscape features of the Slovenian Primorska region to its design and combines the new with the old. It relies on the typical Mediterranean wall made from stacked stones and blends the aggregated horizontal lines with the vertical lines of the vegetation. The horizontals emphasise the leading features of the park, which are delineated by the line of existing cypress trees. The architecture of the park and buildings is inextricably connected with this linear system. The tree lines and those of the walls and pergolas are the principal elements of the harmonious setting that constitutes the network in which the buildings are placed. The dark vertical cypresses stand in contrast to the established strong, light horizontal elements which divide the park into functionally separate units and construct the basic compositional motif on three separate terraces. By doing so, they offer the possibility of erecting an unobtrusive border between individual areas and opening vistas into the “borrowed landscape”. The concept is revealed gradually as the areas pass from one to another. The pergola rounds off the upper, more shaded part of the park and separates it from the lower terrace, where it flows into the light and opens up towards the sea.