Maribor Art Gallery, Arts Building Slovenia, Slovenian Architecture Design Competition

Maribor Art Gallery : Slovenian Building Contest

Slovenian Gallery Project design by Family New York Architects

2 Apr 2010

Maribor Gallery

Design: Family New York, Architects, NYC, USA

New York, 30 March 2010 – The Municipality of Maribor, in partnership with the Union of Architects of Maribor, the UIA and ZAPS, has awarded Family New York with the second prize of 20,000 EUR in the open international competition for the new Maribor Art Gallery in Slovenia.

The Maribor EPK2012 competition (www.mb-arhitekti.si) was launched at the end of 2009 to kickoff a series of riverside development projects as the city prepares to become the European Capital of Culture in 2012. The call for proposals for the new 15,000m2 UGM (Umetnostna Galerija Maribor) included 8,000m2 of gallery space, a children’s museum, an architectural center, artists’ studios, residences for visiting scholars, museum library and retail. The new UGM will be the second largest contemporary art museum in Slovenia.

Located just outside Maribor’s historic military walls, Family’s Extroverted Museum inverts the protective courtyard block – the defining typology of the city center – in order to participate in the surrounding city and environment. The undulating profile of the museum creates courtyards, plazas and playgrounds between the building and the city while simultaneously directing activities and views in and out of the site.

All of the public programs are located at street level with the gallery spaces above, enabling the UGM to use its multitude of resources to directly engage the city without sacrificing the stringent performative requirements of contemporary art exhibition.

“It is an art gallery that strongly advocates a new way of interaction with its diverse publics by communicating a democratic openness towards the exterior… signalling a constant dialogue with audiences, participants of events and workshops and cultural practitioners”. Final Jury Report, EPK 2012

Maribor Development images / information from Family New York, Architects

Location: Maribor, Slovenia, south eastern central Europe

Art Galleries