I despise:

Form generated just for the sake of itself. Form which does not have any contribution to the public realm, except violently occupying the space of the city. Such acts of barbarism will provoke further barbaric forms - a cycle of emerging forms, completely ignoring the sense of the architectural space itself: the program.

Spaces, which ignore the scale. It is true that the world's population is growing constantly, it is also true that governments, big media corporations and the religious communities want to control that population - and exactly that is the reason why I despise all the modern Germanias popping up in the scapes of the contemporary cities. The answer for the future city does not lie in the gentrification and uniformity but in the individualization of people and architecture.

Relativization of typology

It seems that there can't be any successful project without relativization of the use and the program. Library is not a library, but also a shopping mall, discussion forum, Kindergarten and might even have a section for the winter ski activities. A museum becomes a boutique, convention center and in order to earn some money (like in the example of Peter Cooks Graz museum, which is not only iconic in shape but also in costs, so the institution of the museum can not actually afford to purchase any art) it might also just become a new multiplex cinema.

I proclaim:

That there is no architecture without program.

Program is highly defined architectural element and not some liquid description of "event architecture", which is temporary and therefore not important. The humans are celebrating the things they do in a building, we are celebrating the thoughts, feelings, ideas, conversations, meetings, exchanges, fights... which we have within the walls of a building, and not celebrating the walls.

Program is defined by representation of event / public activity and also takes into consideration the human (body) scale required for that action (walking / sitting / procession / walking distance / light / visual perception of the space).

Merging programs can produce new typologies. But it is not done by just simply constructing a big empty space and adjusting to different programs by rearrangements of chairs. The new typology of the public building is a sequence of programs in plan or section and not a celebration of parasitic spaces surrounding a big hall (why does every building, containing a public program, has to have a SHOP?). I am not interested in designing GAP shop windows when thinking about a sport arena.

I will:

Create a public building, containing a series of highly defined programs. Those programs will be sheltered within the boundaries of the building, therefore the architectural iconicity will be directed towards the organism of the house, the inner organization, division and subdivision of space. The importance of the uniformed facade will be diminished, and will purely provide light from outside into the interior and programmatic use from inside into the fabric of the city. The skin will present and not represent the different programs.

I will create a true democratic interior space, which will not be a mini city, since I am not interested in reflecting the contemporary culture of consumerism. Programs defined in such a sharpness, that the sequence of spaces will almost be like a sequence of labs examining the different interests. The spaces will not be designed for masses, but for smaller groups of people, since opinions generated by mass thinking can (evidently) only have negative outcomes.

PLAN

"There is no architecture without program" is (still) the directive statement of my manifesto. Driven by this thesis, I am thinking about situations where program becomes a specific aspect, which shapes the space and has a maximum of impact on the space / perception of space.

And actually the situations where program is met in an unexpected way - those situations become seductive moments, where the particular use and occupation of the space becomes the recognizable identity. The space is no longer simply form, but is associated with program (mis/use, actions, performances...) which it contains.

unexpected programs / Rio: Living on a Wall & Munich: Surfing in the Bavarian Capital

The "unexpected" in this case is that a particular program is connected with a location, where it first seems to be "misplaced" - but the initial reaction of confusion is soon replaced by understanding, because the program shows that a particular space can be used and understood differently.

unexpected programs / Sarajevo: Cello Concert in Ruins & London: Dinner with Nelson

I refuse to accept that programmatic methodology can only survive on paper (and sometimes it is being realized, like in Parc de la Villette - a landscape designed for a joy of architects only). There is no space without people, and there is no physical notion of the space without the movement of the body through space, no movement without program... And so we go on in circles...

My point is: by refusing to deal  with the idea of programmatic architecture only on a level of conversation and theory I also do not accept that form is also understood to be "secondary" in this methodology.

In general: there HAS to be MORE then just empty form, left to be filled with whatever / wherever / whenever. At the same time, the form is not an "accident", it is not a "space of negotiation", an "unintended space", "space of uncertainty" etc. The form has to be strictly defined by the architect - and the architect is not only form maker, but also the creator of atmospheres, joys, phobias, memories, expectations.

Therefore I believe that the position of true iconicity through program / event can only be legitimated if the form is absolutely supporting the concept and if the notion of the form is at least as strong as the argument of the concept itself.

SITE

After the first post-war reconstruction work by the Europeans and Americans, Sarajevo is slowly falling in its own apathy. The city deals with topographic difficulties (stretched long valley imbedded in a chain of Bosnian mountains), the post-economic crisis is hitting hard, since the city has hardly recovered from the economic war consequences and last but not least: a lack of identity (due to the demographical shifts but also because of the lack of recognition as capitol of the country).

Two major events mark the collective conscious of the city: First is the 1984 Winter Olympics - maintained as collective memory of "better times". The second one is a re-occurring one:  Sarajevo Film Festival, held every year in 2 weeks of august.

EVENT

I am thinking about an architecture, activated in the 2 weeks of the year, and then de-actived, transformed into a different space. A space which will spend half of a year being a memory and the other half being an expectation of the event. (last week was the festival, two weeks ago was the festival, 1 month ago was the festival.... the festival will be in a month, the festival will be in 2 weeks, the festival which will start in a week, the festival starts tomorrow).  A space as object of desire, the desire activated by a regular (and temporary) event.

PLAN

Here are some sketches I have been making today; My intention is to develop a plan which can be read differently by looking at it in 2 different scales (it should inform as well when perceived on a scale of a city or of a building). I am attracted by the idea of fragmenting the plan over the whole city (and creating organization / relationships / structures of pieces) and at the same time by dividing the fragments themselves into smaller entities / components (just led by the ideas of porosity, more and less intensive voids / canyons channelizing the flow of the program).

I don't want to be diagrammatic though, but struggling to get away from it!

Anyway, this is the first impression of where my head and my pen are going:

There is a constant notion of Plecnik's Parliament as the lost / lust object or as the object of desire. The reason is that the parliament is actually always present, even though it was never realized. The idea of the Slovenian parliament building is being carried forward as the idea of Slovenian independency itself - and the absent parliament becomes stronger generator of this independency desire than any other Plecnik's building in Ljubljana (and Ljubljana is literary designed & built by Plecnik).

This absence & presence (in its physical and metaphorical form) will become the driving force of the re-brief of the project.

There is no architecture without program. Event is the only generator for the iconicity of the building itself.

The pulse of the parliament as icon will reach its highest peak only in the moment when program takes the full control over the space.

RE-BRIEF

1. Losing the icon

Due to political situation the parliament is being only partly built. The powerful socialist regime is not convinced with the 150 meters monumental cone and proposes a compromise instead: the outer layer of the building (fake colonnade, which Plecnik is proposing) is being realized, but now surrounding a modest modernist building - representing the new Slovenian parliament.

2. Abandonment

After the realization of the building it first houses the delegates of the socialist party, but the political situation shifts and the parliament is being left - by the representatives of the power but also abandoned as an architecture. The building experiences a transition from a modern building, housing the new political ideologies, to a decayed empty space - giving rather a sense of nostalgia (of something being lost / something never being there) then of positive futurism.

3. Finding the icon / Programmatic Orgy

This happens in the moment where the program takes over the building. And that is the only true iconic moment in its life. The abandoned parliament attracts other abandoned individuals - and so it becomes a place of different thinking, place of alternative actions, meetings, art and creative discourse. Within the boundaries of Plecnik's colonnade, this little artificial world can flourish without limits. The orgy of program, now constantly developing within the space, is now sheltered by the i-cone.

4. Acceptance