You can also influence the shape of the new theater in Ljubljana

Prague - Hypermodern, abstract, and traditional architectural designs for a new theater in Ljubljana, Slovenia, created by students from schools in five European countries, have been available online since yesterday on the website www.theatre-architecture.eu/student-competition. Various approaches to utilizing a gap in the historic core of Slovenia's capital and creating a space suitable for modern theater operations are offered through over fifty proposals from architecture students from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Visitors to the site not only have the opportunity to vote for the most successful design but can also comment and evaluate individual proposals. In addition to the public part of the competition through online voting, there will also be evaluations by experts - architects, educators, and art historians. Public voting will close on the website on January 10, 2010.

The exhibition titled Theatre Architecture: Visions and Possibilities is being presented to the public from today on 52 exhibition panels at the Ljubljana City Hall. Compared to the online version, it is supplemented with models of student projects and a comprehensive catalog, which, besides the projects, includes introductory texts by invited experts and educators from architectural schools. The exhibition, which can be visited in Ljubljana until December 6, is the culmination of an international workshop of the same name that took place in the summer semester of 2009 as part of a large, multi-year project TACE - Theatre Architecture in Central Europe.

The representatives of the youngest generation of architects received support from the educators of the participating architectural faculties while fulfilling their challenging task: Péter Klobusovszki (BME, Budapest), Brno architect Jakub Kynčl with colleagues Vítězslav Nový and Jan Sochor (VUT, Brno), Ksenia Piątkowska (Gdańsk University of Technology, Gdańsk), Jacek Rybarkiewicz (Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice), Professor Jiří Suchomel (TU, Liberec), Marek Teska (ČVUT, Prague), Imro Vaško (VŠVU, Bratislava), Marusa Zorec (University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana). The Czech Republic is represented by designs from twenty students.

The initial workshop was conceptually prepared by the prominent Slovenian architect and educator at the Ljubljana Faculty of Architecture, Vojteh Ravnikar. In cooperation with the city administration and the Slovenian Theatre Museum in Ljubljana, a plot was selected for the new theater located in the very center of the metropolis, which has been the subject of considerations by architects and urban planners for several decades. It is an undeveloped courtyard near Congress Square, which was modified in the early 1940s by the famous Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik. Plečnik left a significant mark in Ljubljana in other locations as well. In addition to several buildings he constructed here, he also authored modifications to many public spaces and participated in creating the modern urbanism of the city. Students had to grapple with his legacy when designing the new theater. The selected plot lies at the end of the city axis of streets Emonska and Vegova, defined by Plečnik.

The opening of the exhibition in Ljubljana is part of the international symposium Art in Experimental Space, which is taking place in Ljubljana on November 26 and 27, also as part of the TACE project.

The multi-year international project TACE (Theatre Architecture in Central Europe) is organized by the National Theatre in Prague in cooperation with significant theater institutions from Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia. The project, which is supported by a grant from the European Union's Culture 2000 program, was initiated by the Arts Institute - Theatre Institute. The aim of the project is to provide a detailed mapping of Central European theater architecture, which will be presented through several events highlighting its history and present. A significant traveling exhibition, Central European Theatre Architecture - History and Present, will be first presented at the beginning of 2010 in Prague at the National Technical Library. Updates regarding the TACE project and developments in the field of theater architecture in Central Europe and worldwide can be found on the website www.theatre-architecture.eu.