Country/Region: Slovenia

Tetris Apartments, Ljubljana

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Tetris Apartments, Ljubljana

Mismatches Location Diversity
Urban Design Quality Liveability
Promotion and production Public promotion

Main objectives of the project

The Tetris building in Slovenia features a façade resembling the Tetris game and is oriented at a 30-degree angle to reduce noise from a nearby highway. The building’s design includes flexible floor plans, with only the outer walls being structural, allowing for adaptable living spaces.

Date

  • 2005: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: OFIS Architects

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Description

After the collapse of Yugoslavia, Slovenia underwent significant economic transformations, which also affected its housing policies. The pressures of global markets and speculative practices further exacerbated the housing situation, prompting Slovenia to develop comprehensive housing strategies. A key component of this effort has been the restoration and development of public housing stocks, exemplified by the Tetris building.

The Tetris building earned its name due to the appearance of its elevations, which many people likened to the iconic shapes of the Tetris game. The design of the façade is straightforward, reflecting the organization of the floor plans. Given its location adjacent to a busy highway, the building’s apartments and balconies are oriented at a 30-degree angle towards the quieter, south-facing side. This strategic orientation minimizes noise and enhances the living experience.

Future plans include the construction of two additional blocks on the longitudinal sides of the Tetris building, which means there will be no direct windows facing east or west. Each apartment features a view of its own balcony, and in some cases, a glazed loggia, fostering a sense of privacy and preventing direct views between opposite apartments.

The apartments in the Tetris building vary in size, ranging from 30 square meters studio flats to 70 square meters three-room apartments. Larger apartments are located on the front façades, offering better views and corner orientations. These apartments are constructed with economical yet high-quality materials, such as oak wood floors, granite-tiled bathrooms, and large windows equipped with external metal blinds.

The building’s structural concept emphasizes flexibility in floor plans. Only the walls that separate the apartment shells from the rest of the building are structural, while all other internal walls are non-structural. This allows for adaptable living spaces that can be modified according to residents' needs.

Links

Authors:

CSCAE Consejo Superior de los Colegios de Arquitectos de España

Brdo Housing Project F5, phase 2

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Brdo Housing Project F5, phase 2

Policies and regulations
Financing
Urban Design
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

In the framework of the National housing programme Slovenia with it’s business policy finances and promotes the residential construction. An efficient public housing strategy is is one of the fundamental components of quality and sustainability oriented city, with the last example of housing Brdo on the outskirts of the capital city of Ljubljana.

Date

  • 2016: Construction

Stakeholders

  • Architect: Katja ŽŽlajpah
  • Architect: Aleš Žnidaršič

Location

Continent: Europe
Country/Region: Slovenia

Description

The residential neighbourhood Balcony apartment in two phases comprises 272 apartments in 3 types of residential buildings with total size of 27.500m2 and 16.500 m2 underground garage. The designed housing blocks are formally disciplined; yet display certain playfulness thanks to the rhythmic arrangement of covered loggias and projected balconies. The floor plans, marked by a quality of bilateral orientation, focus on the spatial openness of integrated living rooms and kitchens. The all-over design with their rational approach employs simple and affordable architectural elements in order to re-invest resources into spatial generosity within the limits of the social housing framework.
The area is situated in the outskirts of the capital city of Ljubljana, which is considered to offer qualitative living standard within regulated systems of neighbourhoods and settlements, planned as distinctive ambient entity within the regulatedurban typology. Moderate articulated design of the buildings aims in a specific way to provide and accentuate those parameters that offer primary a friendly and qualitative accommodation within these concentrated settlement systems. The solution incorporates criteria that become the creators of urban design: the evaluation of appropriate criteria on the size of building area, evaluation of "optimal" range, providing quality between the individual and the collective.
The premises comprise three buildings that differ in size and types, which define the comprehensive and modifications of the typology of a functional unit of five parallel laid out buildings. The dwelling typology is oriented towards a model that is aiming to ensure social friendly relations to the greatest possible extent: less concentration of units linked to common entrances, parameters of privacy / intimacy of the habitat (two-sided oriented flats), natural cross over ventilation, the correct insulation, as well as the orientation of housing units (providing views - both landscape and privacy), a large structural diversity of apartments, from the smallest units to the diverse terraced housing in the form of "family houses" at the top of the building (penthouse) and to include one of the forms of outer surfaces – the balconies, loggias or terraces. The facade is composed of two elements - the plaster and fibre-cement panels. The headlining in the loggias and balconies is made of aluminium panels, reflecting the surroundings.

Authors:

Fundació Mies van der Rohe Barcelona

Housing Fund of the Republic of Slovenia

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Housing Fund of the Republic of Slovenia

Mismatches New family structures
Financing
Promotion and production

Main objectives of the project

Date

  • 1991:

Stakeholders

  • Promotor: Housing Fund of Republic of Slovenia (SSRS)

Location

Continent: Europe
City: Cerknica
Country/Region: Slovenia

Description

The objectives and specific targets of the Fund have evolved, but remain focused on the construction, renovation and maintenance of apartments and residential buildings, targeted at groups with particular needs such as families, young people, the elderly, and Roma populations. The main instruments used to achieve this have involved co-financing with long-term favourable loans and interest rate subsidies, and investments in new innovations and international research. The Housing Fund is a public authority and actively invests directly in housing and also co-invests in local community housing programmes, complementing the efforts of municipalities and non-government organizations. It also purchases land and houses directly on the market. Since 2006, non-profit dwellings regulated under the Housing Act have been let at relatively regulated low rents. Consequently, they are in high demand among prospective tenants, but have proven less attractive to investors. With its own construction and purchase projects on the market, the Fund provides an additional quota of publicly available rental housing, tying rent calculation to the real estate investment or purchase value. It offers eligible tenants a stable rental relationship under pre-known conditions for an indefinite period. In 2019 CEIB (also discussed in this chapter) provided the Fund with a long-term loan of EUR 50 million.

Issues tackled

Currently the Fund directly owns 3,042 non-profit rental-housing units and a further 787 dwellings which are let at cost-based rents. Two companies owned by the fund own another 2,056 apartments, which they rent out at non-profit rent. These dwellings are located throughout Slovenia. The Fund is intensively building affordable rental apartments throughout Slovenia, and by 2023 it will provide 2,194 new public rental apartments.

The Fund is now focusing on effective administration for public rental dwellings. Thus, between 2017 and 2020, its activities have included:

Co-investment in new public rental housing units, including residential units, under a co-financing programme
Establishment and operation of the Public Service for Rental Management and Records system
Management of mixed portfolio of formerly non-profit, commercial, and sheltered housing
Providing new public rental housing units for young people, young families and the elderly, the utilization of rental buying-in and shared ownership instruments
Development of new projects on land owned by the Fund
Financial incentives for housing in the form of soft loans
Sustainable construction and complete renovation of the housing stock for all products and programmes of the Fund
Technical standards for the home-building industry
Cooperation in development projects in housing construction
Strengthening and implementing the Fund’s development role in housing
Efforts to obtain funding from EU funds
Acquiring assets for and in the framework of partner projects.

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