MARIBOR HOUSING

Designers: Florencia Pita & Jackilin Hah Bloom

Project Team: Marie-Sophie Starlinger, Freesia Torres, Wan Lee, Makenzie Murphy

Maribor, Slovenia. 2012

2111 AI 100YC Project - Maribor City of Culture

This proposal aims at introducing a color saturated image roof-scape to the city of Maribor in the form of NEW HOUSING and neighborhood CULTURAL CENTERS. Located in the current zone of industry, the development will begin along the River Drava and continue to fill in the entire area of industry. The roofs of the amassed buildings are a layer of colored ceramic tile where each tile is a pixel, completing a geological satellite image of the existing Maribor landscape. The formal disposition of buildings is derived from five primitive roof typologies of existing roof types in Maribor. Each primitive is re-shaped then merged and morphed into one another to create a new family of contemporary forms. Each building’s unique form aligns to the geometry of the adjacent buildings or is incongruently misaligned. These conditions create unexpected courtyards and open spaces to allow light and air through the buildings. As housing and shops line the streets, a cultural building (library, theatre, school, church) is located within a few miles from one another, forming neighborhood destinations within the old industrial zone. Seen from the river, the red clad roof-scape of the old town Maribor, extends to the NEW HOUSING, the previous site of obsolete industries, is now a site bustling with people and culture, with color saturated roof-scapes, and meandering landscapes.