Plečnik and Ljubljana: Shaping Open Space

Plečnik oeuvre in Ljubljana is extensive and diverse, detailed in numerous books, expert texts, and exhibitions. However, his work in shaping open spaces is less covered in publications, even though this aspect, one of the key chapters in Plečnik’s creativity, significantly contributed to the fact that some of his works are now on the UNESCO World Heritage List. 

Ljubljana contains more than 60 cultural monuments of national importance, and many among them include open space arrangements or are even completely independent units. Plečnik designed parks and gardens and arranged streets, squares, and embankments, through which he co-shaped the public urban space. His urban development plan for Ljubljana from 1928, titled Study for the Regulation of Ljubljana and Its Surroundings, proved his familiarity with the city as it included numerous arrangements that were later implemented through more detailed plans. His design concepts were not created spontaneously or solely based on the proposal of a gardener, as is often stated, but were executed according to plans drawn in multiple variations, and usually with additional modifications just before implementation.

New elements were used in some interventions, while others reused older ones. Most often, however, it was a combination of both. This is why we can, from today’s perspective, argue that Plečnik had a human-centric, holistic, visionary, or even, a sustainable approach to his work, which should not be taken for granted nowadays. His spatial arrangements are thus becoming ever more relevant and worthy of detailed studies.

The exhibition presents Plečnik's principles of spatial planning in Ljubljana with concrete examples, and archival photographs, provided for the exhibition from the Plečnik Collection (MGML), the IPCHS Archives, the Historical Archives of Ljubljana, photographer Peter Naglič's archive, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, the National Museum of Contemporary History, and the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana. These are complemented by contemporary photographs from Matevž Paternoster and Plečnik's plans from the Plečnik Collection (MGML).