Ljubljana Central Station

The intuitively designed space of the new Ljubljana’s Central Station adapts to every visitors need and creates an effective and comfortable experience.

The ground floor offers 30 new bus terminals and provides the chance for all upper floors to create a conglomerate of various program cubes. With the different layering of the inside, outside, and middle space a new city square emerges. The main element of the building is the monumental two-way stair. With the warm materialization of brick and the lively public program, they become the living room of the station. The building’s green roof is accessible to everyone, where an ambitious view of the Ljubljana center with the Castle on top opens up.

Concrete columns carry the prefabricated slabs and thermally isolated volumes, that are scattered around the upper floors. The volumes offer a variety of different inviting programs, such as kiosks, cafés, post offices, banks, grocery shops, and so on.

As the new building emerges, the now already busy Vilharjeva road becomes even more involved in city traffic. The project predicts the widening of the street into a 4-way road, with a separate entrance to the Station’s new four floors of the underground parking garage. In the second phase, we also suggest a safe bicycle path and green promenade.

With an elegant polycarbonate facade and its partly translucent appearance, the new Central Station establishes an interesting dialog with the surrounding street and existing train station while triggering interest in any passers-by from the ground perspective.