Regional museum of Celje // Slovenia
4 mei
Project: Regional museum of Celje // Slovenia
Architect: Nande Korpnik – KORPNIK PRODUKCIJA, d.o.o., Celje // Slovenija
Fabricator: REMONT, d.d., Celje // Slovenija
Installer: SIMER PLUS, d.o.o., Celje // Slovenija
Façade system: Glued
Year of construction: 2024
Product: ALUCOBOND® PLUS naturAL Reflect
Photos: Miran Kambic
Reflective Elegance
The Regional Museum in Celje, Slovenia’s third-largest city, houses part of its collections in a building known as the Old Count’s Mansion, built between 1580 and 1603. The museum’s main hall displays the famous Celje Ceiling, a magnificent ceiling painting which dates back to the transition between late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. The trompe l'oeil painting creates a highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional surface. Even the exterior of the listed Renaissance building is imposing and very grand. Rising directly above the banks of the river Savinja, the building’s façade is finished in a single, uniform stone. On the south facing side of the museum, a mirrored lift shaft, a small and finely executed extension, was added in 2024. This new vertical addition, featuring minimalist, meticulous design, complements the historic building and is an independent and contrasting volume. Although its façade’s contemporary aesthetic is fundamentally different from the existing building, it is unobtrusive and it reflects the historic surroundings perfectly. The glued ALUCOBOND® façade panels reflect not only the cultural heritage but also the urban environment, the sky and surrounding nature. Like an echo, the sleek elements act as a surface for reflection and interaction. What is more, they embrace their surroundings and, in certain light and weather conditions, they make the shaft vanish almost completely. In this way, the new addition minimises its volume and visual impact to ensure that the historic building’s grandeur is in no way diminished. At the same time, it metamorphoses into a vibrant part of the building complex and, depending on the perspective, creates an optical illusion in the outdoor space.
Slovenian architect, Nande Korpnik, the man responsible for this subtle, reflective artistic device, is frequently involved in contemporary interventions within historical contexts. In Celje, he has succeeded in transforming a functional addition into an architectural gesture. A gesture which does not impose itself on the existing structure but enriches it in an unassuming yet refreshing way.