Published on: June 12, 2012

SADAR + VUGA sent us some photos of the apartment they recently completed in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

It is a modernist apartment with a very innovative lighting design. Please find more info below:

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Photo by: Miran Kambič

The Dukič apartment buildings in Ljubljana, built in the nineteen thirties, have a high reputation among locals. The high value of these apartments is certainly due to their location in the city center, close proximity to Tivoli Park and distinctive, quality architecture that is thoughtfully placed within its location.

SADAR+VUGA designed the renovation of a 130 m2 multi-room apartment which builds on certain Bauhaus modernist motifs of apartment buildings and interprets them to create an enduring and timeless quality.

Photo by: Miran Kambič

This is a place where people may also live. It could also be a clinic, office or bureau, or a stage set for a new film. It is a place reserved for the demanding client who may, in this same apartment live, work and have fun. It is a place separated from the outside world with its own specific atmosphere.

It is a place, which inspires discovery, stimulates curiosity, a space that simultaneously excites and calms us. The place is full of contradictions and ambiguities: open, closed, hidden, exposed, hard and rough, soft and warm, physical and virtual.

Photo by: Miran Kambič

The program organized into two parts: daily public area and nightly private area. In the daily area, which is a large open space, there are various ambiences organized around the cube in the centre; a large table with comfortable chairs, a leather chair for tea at five, a soft sofa and a comfy chair. There are hidden service rooms in the middle of the cube; a utility, a cloakroom and a storage room.

Photo by: Miran Kambič

In the open part of the cube, there is a kitchenette, surrounded by lamellas, which mask activities when viewed from a certain angle, and open views through the central cube under other angles. The lamellas soften the contact between the cube and the open area. In a separate room, there is a cabinet with a library. The other open area is private and combines a bathroom and a bedroom. In the central part there is a large glass shower and a ceramic stand-alone sink. Cabinets, shelves and a locker room are hidden behind linings made of mirrors and steel plates.

Lighting

Light is an important part of the ambience in an apartment. The suspended ceiling is shaped like a lamp. The graphical network of large floating lines and squares seems abstract in the space. Different atmospheres are created by lighting the various illumination ways in the apartment.

The warm morning atmosphere with sunlit floors becomes mysterious at night when illuminated by the ceiling network and the walls become a single continuous lining. The flat takes an introverted atmosphere in daylight and becomes extroverted when night falls. The light sources feature a delicate balance of energy efficacy and light quality. The ceiling network is lit using energy efficient LEDs while all the sensitive areas, such as the dining table and the kitchenette are lit with halogen light sources in order to provide the best possible light quality for the user.

All of the lighting is either carefully integrated into the architecture or serves a decorative purpose.

Photo by: LightAct

The light fitting Stardust above the sink in the WC is custom designed and mimics the twinkling of the stars in the night sky. It uses an innovative interactive lighting control system LightAct.

Materials

Installed materials are made in various shades of grey. The materials have a rich texture. High gloss epoxy on the floor in which the network on the ceiling is reflected, rough mat structure of concrete panels, soft reflex linings with fine texture of steel sheets which reflect blurred silhouettes.

Glossy sliding panels made of Plexiglas at windows create sharp shadows when drawn in direct daylight and create soft diffused light when the apartment is not directly bathed in the sunlight. Soft quilted leather lining as the bed rest. Built-in cabinets are installed behind the linings. Behind all these different materials hides the body, the functions of the apartment.

The selected furniture is of classic forms, such as Thonet and Nelson Pretzel chairs, Chesterfield sofas, a velvet sofa, a solid oak table. Equipment that is usually being touched is soft, comfortable and warm.

Photos by: David Lotrič unless noted otherwise