XII, 2011/1

Editorial

The past year was quite productive, in the scholarly field as well. You are invited to read in the present issue of AR the reports on research, activities, congresses and awards.

To mark the centenary of the birth of a professor at our school, Edo Mihevc, an exhibition was mounted at the Cankarjev dom Cultural and Congress Centre; you will find the hommage to the great architect below.More about his work in the next issue. The faculty was granted two Zlata kocka/Golden Cube awards for its pedagogical work; the winners were Dr Živa Deu and Assistant Professor Domen Zupančič (together with Assistant Professor Beatriz Tomšič Čerkez from the Faculty of Education, who is also known for her contributions to AR). Congratulations!

Unfortunately, shortly before the publication of the magazine I was taken aback by a letter from the Moscow colleagues informing us of the death on June 23 2011 of the architect Professor Elena Alexandrovna Opolovnikova. She continued the work of her father Alexander Viktorovich Opolovnik, who studied the timber architecture of the Russian north before World War II. Elena Opolovnikova was the first to publish his unpublished work (and, above all, excellent pencil drawings on Schoelleshammer paper, which I admired at her home in Moscow); later on, she promoted Russian culture with some fine books of her own. The last of these was published only a few days before her death. In Slovenia, we came to know her through her absorbing lectures at the ALPE ADRIA International Conference, where she appeared several times. She also contributed to AR magazine, arguing that Slovenia and Russia were very much alike with respect to timber. Besides she was also very much attached to Slovenia. She will be missed by all who knew her.

The present issue of AR contains articles on technological innovations in façade cladding, steel structures, energy- efficient construction, an Evangelical church and exhibition spaces.
Dr Ljudmila Koprivec and Professor Martina Zbašnik Senegačnik writes about ordinary materials built into the façade cladding. It is a specially interesting topic, as some materials and techniques which were once used succesfully fell out of favour with users, investors and architects. The writer offers a contemporary view of classic materials.

A good former student of ours and Assistant at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Dr Mitja Košir, presents technical solutions for the regulation of interior environments. He gives practical evidence of the efficiency of regulation by means of building envelopes, which has been known for a long time, but much less applied.

Assistant Professor Manja Kuzman and Dr Srečko Vratuša write about energy-efficient timber construction in Slovenia. The concern is with economically more succesful solutions for advanced technologies.

Assistant Professor Lara Slivnik depicts steel constructed structures in Slovenia, primarily those erected in the course of the past ten years, discussing bridges, buildings, a stadium, and a metal mountain hut.

Architects from Zagreb preparing their doctoral theses, Kristina Careva and Tatjana Jaklenec, present an interesting relationship: exhibitions and the Internet. They present realisations and possibilities in both media, neither of which is outdated nor particularly innovative.

Andreja Benko, also preparing her doctoral thesis, treads a particular path by investigating the first Evangelical church in Slovenia. The article reveals the architectural richness of Evangelical churches, which has been concealed from us until now. I hope that our young colleague will continue her work after this publication.

There is sufficient reading for the beginning of the new academic year. Perhaps some ideas for our teaching programme might arise from AR.