@Miran Kambic; Plecnik’s Architecture, Ljubljana, Slovenia
LOCATION
Ljubljana
Slovenia
COURSE DESCRIPTION
For its 10th edition, the AA nanotourism Visiting School will take place in the central European, pocket-size capital, Ljubljana, Slovenia, where several works of the architect Jože Plečnik were recently listed by the UNESCO World Heritage.
The works of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana “present an example of a human-centred urban design” (UNESCO) that elevates the public space of the city as well as contributes to distinct recognizability and architectural identification of Ljubljana. Furthermore, the set of works is protected as a whole, rather than isolated architectural fragments. The value of Plečnik’s contribution to Ljubljana has been recognized as an urban whole.
Yet, Ljubljana is a vibrant city facing contemporary challenges from the overwhelming saturation of international daily visitors to the absolute commodification of public spaces. Plečnik's work and persona have been too often superficially abused for shallow tourist consumables and the qualities of his work, underlined by UNESCO, remain largely invisible to visitors and inhabitants alike. How does one reconcile Plečnik’s ambitions with contemporary city life? This is what AA Nanotourism Ljubljana 2024 will explore, test and experiment on.
We will aim to develop 1:1 scale, conceptual, locally-specific interventions in the form of built installations, events and strategies. Through collaboration with local stakeholders and a set of experts, we will imagine and implement future collaborative prototypes of locally responsible tourism.
ABOUT NANOTOURISM
AA nanotourism Visiting School is an architectural educational programme focusing on nanotourism - a creative critique of the current environmental, social and economic downsides of conventional tourism. Through critical thinking and close collaboration with local stakeholders, we focus on developing nanotourism case studies to reveal hidden aspects of the particular context addressing the place, its users, and locally available materials.
Over the past decade, the AA Nanotourism program has produced numerous student projects that have gained recognition and been exhibited by prestigious institutions worldwide. These include the London Design Festival in 2018, the Oslo Architecture Triennale in 2019, the Vienna Design Week in 2020, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in 2021, and the BIO27 Ljubljana in 2022.
APPLICATIONS
You can make an application by sending a CV (one page) and portfolio (max. 5MB) to nanotourism@aaschool.ac.uk
Subject of email: Application for AA nanotourism
Upon review, candidates will be contacted with further instructions. A limited amount of scholarships will be available.
Deadline for applications is Sunday 26 May.
FEES
The AA Visiting School requires a fee of £860 per participant, which includes a £60 Visiting Membership fee, payable by all participants.
Fees cover the entire programme and provision of basic building materials. Fees do not include flights or other modes of transportation to and from the workshop area.
Fees do not cover accommodation in Ljubljana.
20% bursaries available to current AA students, your fee will be altered upon AA log in during the registration. If you have any issues, please get in touch with the Visiting School office.
MENTORS
VISITING EXPERTS
PARTNERS
Invited Mentor
Amin Taha was born in Berlin and has been settled in the UK since 1974. After working in the offices of Zaha Hadid, Wilkinson Eyre and others he began an independent studio in 2005, later incorporating Groupwork as an Employee Ownership Trust. As well as running the design and detailing of projects Amin has taught, written and lectured on architecture, sat on the RIBA National and International Awards Jury and aids related research groups. His company GROUPWORK are an employee ownership trust studio in which all collaborators are equal partners with engineers, landscape architects and other designers joining on specific projects. These have varied from private houses, residential and office buildings, arts centres, infrastructure bridges and metro stations. The featured projects have been recognized by the RIBA Stirling and EU Mies van Der Rohe jury, and illustrate the practices core philosophy, Explore – Restore – Ignore, allowing a broader sense of context to drive material, structure and compositional narratives.
https://groupwork.uk.com/