5x5 Magic Square for Maribor

EPK Drava 2012 Competition, Jan.-Feb.10
15,000m2 Museum in Maribor Slovenia

The building includes an art museum, a children’s museum, an architecture center, various gastronomic entities, and 25 artist studios with four apartments. To solve this architectural program riddle, we experimented with the magic square of Albrecht Duerer’s etching ’Melancholia I’. Duerers square consist of 4x4 fields, while ours has 5x5, which reflects the five-part program. The original two-dimensional square is turned into a three-dimensional one. Each one of the 25 fields has a length and width of 15 meters, therefore the whole square is 75x75 meters, which fits perfectly on the site. In height, every unit is one meter. Every field is now three-dimensional, a volume with the same footprint and different heights. The volumes are connected on various levels, and every volume houses a distinct programmatic function.

The highest volume, [25] is the central lobby, which unites all aspects of the building. A wide staircase meanders from the parking garage to the ground floor public piazza, continuing up through a split reception area for the art museum, leading to a landing for the childrenŐs museum to arrive at the main information desk with astonishing views over the city, the mountains and the Drava River. The volumes hover above a grand piazza flooded by sunlight passing through open fields. This is to allow maximum passage and vistas; inviting to people for gatherings and happenings; and to enhance the urban fabric. Almost all roof levels are accessible to museum visitors, playing children, and restaurant guests. The roof is planted forming a three-dimensional sculpture park. The structure leaves room for play, and offers surprising perspectives of the environment.

This building should be made out of in-situ concrete using gravel from different regions of the Drava River, sharp stones form the Dolomites and round pebbles from the partnering Danube, and even from the Black Sea. Self-cleansing white Istrian stone is used for the pavement and possibly the facade outside. Below the building, geothermal wells capture sustainable energy not only for the museum itself, but for the neighborhood as well.

Project Team: Will Orlando, Pino Pavese, Miriam Waltz, Eva Sommeregger, Rodolfo Diaz, various advisors