Piranesi Mention 2023: Bohinj Kindergarten, Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia

The architects’ contemporary approach to the design of the kindergarten in a sensitive Alpine setting has created an outstanding, award-winning building.

In Slovenia there are still many places of pristine nature that are almost untouched by man, and Bohinj is certainly one of these. Set in the Triglav National Park, the area around Lake Bohinj, together with the mountains, is protected as a nature conservation site and as such, despite the mass summer tourism, still retains its natural beauty. Before reaching the lake, one drives through Bohinjska Bistrica, the urban centre of Bohinjski Kot and the Municipality of Bohinj. The settlement, which has experienced considerable development in recent years, not only in terms of tourism but also as an administrative and economic centre, can compete with the high quality of Slovenian architectural design with some of its more recent architectural additions. These include the Jože Ažman Cultural Centre dating back to the 1970s, and the wood-clad commercial and residential centre in the centre by OFIS arhitekti. Last year these were joined by a new kindergarten built in the immediate vicinity of the existing primary school, thus combining both into a comprehensive whole. The kindergarten was designed by two architectural teams, Arrea from Ljubljana and KAL A from Madrid.

In 2020, the Municipality of Bohinj, together with ZAPS, the Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning, launched a public competition. Despite the rather unfavourable situation at the time, during the COVID-19 lockdowns, more than 36 offices submitted their entries, all of them recognising the quality of the location in their own way, and creating their own response to the requirements of the project brief. Since I was the chairman of the competition jury, let me just quote a few sentences from the final competition report to explain the qualities of the winning entry:

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