Hotel Intercontinental, Slovenia
13 september 2021
Project: Hotel Intercontinental, Ljubljana |Slovenia
Architect: OFIS arhitekti d.o.o., Ljubljana | Slovenia
Fabricator & Installer: Reflex, Poljcanje | Slovenia
Façade System: Tray panels special design
Year of Construction: 2017
Product: ALUCOBOND® A2 naturAL Brushed
Photos: Tomaž Gregoric
EVOLUTIONARY DESIGN
Ljubljanan architects, Ofis, have shown theirmastery of structuring and modulating by meansof repetition in many of their projects. Onegood example of their prowess is this 22-storey,82-metre hotel tower in the Slovenian capital.The architects’ aim was to tailor their towerto fit in with both the townscape and the glasshigh-rise building directly adjacent. At the sametime, they wanted to refer to the existing fabricyet produce original, distinctive architecture. Intheir design, the architects reduced the towerinto its structural components, particularly intofloor slabs and façades. The ground floor is thebasis for the initial shape, the footprint of thebuilding within the confines of the narrow constructionplot. The storeys above evolved fromthis form and following the straight wall of theneighbouring tower. In other words, each leveldevelops from the level beneath and introducesminor changes in the layout. The levels repeatup to the very top storey, yet there are slight variationsor mutations every time. This allows thefloor plan to evolve and, ultimately, the groundfloor and top floor are very different. The twoconcrete staircases remain unchanged over thefull height of the building, providing a structural and organisational link between the differentstoreys. The façade, clad in glass and ALUCOBOND® naturAL Brushed panels, visually highlightsthe dynamic nature of the building with itssurfaces reflecting matt or clear-cut reflections,shaded recesses or exposed façade sections.Unlike the floorplan where the architects hadscope, the focus of the façade design was onfitting in with the neighbouring high-rise. In thisbuilding, the floor slabs between the glazed surfacesstand out as recessed shadow gaps, darkhorizontal bands stacked on top of one another.The architects replicated this feature in thenew-build, but in reverse, by cladding the floorslabs in pale reflecting ALUCOBOND® naturALBrushed and shifting them slightly out of alignmentwith the glass façade. The façade comprisespractically floor-to-ceiling windows onevery storey and typical local motifs are printedon specific parts. These motifs are the outcomeof evolutionary design development with a classicdot matrix as starting point. These ostensiblerepetitions, which in reality are evolving andenhanced versions of motif, format and matrix,give the building its own distinctive identity andmultifaceted architecture.