Page 125 - Studia Universitatis Hereditati, vol 11(2) (2023)

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building at Bonifika in 1962, and was renamed while for public buildings – including school
after the national hero of the partisan movement, buildings – he drew more directly on contempo-
Pinko Tomažič. Although the area of drained rary modernist trends.
salt pans had started to be reclaimed already un- It was in the context of school buildings
der the Kingdom of Italy in the 1920s and 1930s that a major breakthrough was made in Slove-
(Čebron Lipovec 2020, 249–251), it did not ac- nia at the time, as an echo of the development
tually undergo urbanisation until after it was an- and modernisation of the teaching process (the
nexed to Yugoslavia. The plan to develop Bonifi- need for a less rigid learning space, the limitation
ka with modern neighbourhoods making up the of the number of pupils, new teaching methods,
‘New Koper’ was prepared by the leading archi- etc.) (Petelin 2020, 172–173). Changes in the
tect and urban planner in the region at the time, field of architecture began to take effect with the
Edo Mihevc, as part of the Urban Plan for Koper introduction of a new form of education after a
in 1961. The latter was part of the larger Region- new Law on Primary Education was adopted in 125
1959. It was based on the principles of the Com-
al Plan for the Slovenian Coast (the area of the
ti northern Istrian coast within the Socialist Re- munist League of Yugoslavia and established
a balance between education and upbringing
public of Slovenia) which was drawn up between
1959 and 1963. Mihevc developed a distinctive ar- (Sluga and Jelen Madruša 2006, 10). All school
ta ranean architecture’ (Čebron Lipovec 2018, 245– ernist principles: the basic unit was the class-
buildings were built according to the same mod-
chitectural idiom of ‘progressive’ and ‘Mediter-
room, which was to provide the pupil with suf-
265) for the newly annexed region, consisting of
ficient space, and the floor plan of the classroom
modern architecture with elements inspired by
di local, vernacular Mediterranean architecture, es- should be close to square, adequately lit and have
large windows; the new floor plans should be
pecially from the countryside. Through this lo-
more varied and allow for a more appropriate
cally influenced yet modern architectural style,
he wanted to lay the foundations for modern de-
than a single storey and have dynamic, asymmet-
velopment in the newly annexed region, based school design; the schools should not have more the primary school in postwar koper/capodistria as a social laboratory
here contemporary in their floor plans and furnish- time it should be organically adapted to region-
rical compositions; construction should be pos-
on the qualities of historical and geographi-
sible using a concrete structure, but at the same
cal features. The new, modern villa-blocks were
al specificities; finally, schools should stand in
ings, while their exteriors bore vivid earthy col-
parks, in the middle of greenery, in contact with
ours, accented with tile roofs, vertical windows,
nature. All these principles can be found in sev-
wooden shutters, stone details, pergolas and lush
greenery. The architect wrote that this was in-
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ifika. At least four variants were made , propos-
tended to preserve the ‘visual continuity of the
studiauniversitatis
ing a subdivided construction around a central
landscape’ (Mihevc 1963, 42). This way, he want- eral proposed variants for the new school at Bon-
ed to create at least an external appearance that pavilion (variant A); an even more subdivided,
sought continuity with the region’s tradition. In clustered design of pavilions (variant B); and a
this gesture we can recognise both a desire to re- simpler, rectangular pavilion design with a wide
spect this region, but also a desire to conceal the atrium (variant C). These three variants, which
obvious cut in the region’s development and his- directly mirror the principles of the ‘new school’,
tory caused by the drastic socio-political revolu- were presented only in plan form. A fourth var-
tion and the change of population. Neverthe- iant was developed, representing the realised
less, the Mediterranean character was mainly building: an elongated, single-storey pavilion
achieved in residential and tourist architecture, building on columns, with three connecting
tracts and two spacious, external staircases.
21 PAK, 936_2, Osnovna šola Janka Premrla Vojka, Šolska
kronika, 1962/63. 22 PAK, 24.2, OLO Projekti, 377, 5.