Architectural Gallery DESSA

The home for the association of independent Slovenian architects (Dessa), founded in 1982, is located near the center of town on a small and slightly sloping alley. Three steps made of light, natural stone are lowered into the uneven cobblestone pavement in front of the entrance. The upper step is invitingly wide, poiting the way to an anteroom, making the stoop highly relative. Behind the metal clad door and the two wide alley windows, a gallery space for small architectural exhibitions is located. A closet-deep layer surrounds all four sides of the room, smoothing out the irregulariries of the old building and containing storage space and service elements for lectures. From the public area, a round room – a reference library of current special litarature and magazines – mediates for the offices behind it, where strong, column-like, and spacious closets divide and claim the room so that a stark prisms, alcove-like separated work spaces are located; to the side is an adjoining conference room. Natural stones, fine wood, and leather develop their material effect in the public area. The secretarial rooms are more simply furnished, but sill document the quality of Slovenian craftsmanship. The attractive interior in limited confines, designed and built as a short treatise of the handling space and rooms seems an ideal home for an architectural association.