The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the urbanism, architecture and design of the town of Nova Gorica through the eyes of the professional journalism published in Slovenia after 1945. It mostly discusses the architecture magazines Arhitekt, Sinteza and AB-Arhitektov bilten, which kept up with the developments of Slovenian and consequently Nova Gorica architecture, urbanism and design from the fi fties to the early nineties. While analysing these publications, it considered the circumstances of the creation and operation of an individual magazine, and the indirect influence exerted over them by the editorial policies. It also devoted special attention to accurately putting the topics under discussion into the then context of the development of Nova Gorica and the framework of concurrent events in professional practice in Slovenia.
COBISS.SI-ID: 42490669
The article discusses the unexecuted plans for “Honorary cemetery of important Slovenians”, designed by architect Jože Plečnik. In the frame of urban planning of Bežigrad, northern part of Ljubljana, the architect also dealt with the territory of the abandoned St. Christopher cemetery, where the enlargement of St. Christopher church, new monumental church (Hall of Fame) as well as memorial park has been planned. The latter should become a Slovenian Pantheon and as such play an important role in creating historical memory and promoting national consciousness. Due to the different wishes of the owner of the area, Diocese of Ljubljana, the project was never executed, its only remaining is Navje memorial park, which has, due to much smaller dimension, never played the same role as Plečnik’s original idea would.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4002158
The purpose of this paper is to find out why in the post-Second World War Slovene newly built residential neighborhoods and cities, despite abandoning the principles of the Athens Charter and planning settlements with coning in favor of the Scandinavian model of residential neighborhoods with social centers (the so-called ABC towns), no religious buildings were planned or built. This paper will try to highlight this very complex issue, especially in view of the role of the Commission for Religious Affairs (KVV), which, as a body of political authorities from the mid1950s until the independence of Slovenia in 1991, supervised and ordered the construction and renovation of religious buildings in Slovenia. In doing so, it played a decisive role not only in determining the guidelines for the selection of locations and the form of newly constructed religious buildings, but also in delaying the implementation of administrative procedures. This was especially evident in the case of Nova Gorica because of the ideological significance of the new modernist town along the border: it served as a showcase of the socialist Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY).
COBISS.SI-ID: 27642371
The territory of present day Nova Gorica and its surrounding experienced the First World War in all its dimensions. The fringes and hinterland of Nova Gorica preserve many memories of the war, such as war cemeteries, memorials and monuments. However, there are no war memorials and/or monuments in the modernist town itself. Why is that so? Even though the reasons might at first sight be evident due to the political decision to build a new city after the Second World War, due to its modernist design, and due to history of fascism that followed the First World War, exploration of this complex topic should embrace additional aspects of various research fields in order to gain even deeper understanding of this phenomenon. It must therefore necessarily interfere with both the analysis of historiography and the theories of collective memory and identity, and, last but not least, with considerations on the so-called City Branding. Although such a comprehensive analysis by far exceeds the scope of this paper, some reflections upon the topic are given, focusing primarily on defining the legacy of the First World War in the multifaceted process of contemporary Nova Gorica identity formation. This was done by compilation of the most recent historiographical, art historical, heritage and sociological studies and by the analysis of selected case studies, representing the presence/absence of memory on the First World War.
COBISS.SI-ID: 27002627
Nova Gorica is a city that has literally grown with industry set in the eastern and southeastern part of the town. The flagship in the industry was the Meblo furniture factory, which, like the city, grew from nothing to a modern organization with its own design institute. The factory, which was successful and exported its products to all five continents, was a bridge between the old and modern world, but not only that, with the factory equipping the emerging city with furniture, the new inhabitants of the city began to experience the feeling of modernity. The city's identity was built with industry. But today, of all this industry, which employed thousands of people, it is difficult to show which one any restored industrial architecture, let alone a space where industrial design or industrial heritage in general would be presented.
COBISS.SI-ID: 27788291