XIV, 2013/1

Editorial

Considering the ever more difficult economic situation, the AR editorial board's decision to publish the magazine in both digital and printed versions has proven to be a good one. The former enables greater availability in English as well as production in colour, while the latter allows for a better overview and is in many respects more practical. So we are presented with two versions which, of course, entails more work, but authors find them ever more attractive.

Efforts made at congresses by myself and my colleague Zupančič to recruit new authors have slowly but surely produced results. Unfortunately, this also means more work because an increasing number of submitted contributions never get published after being reviewed.

The current issue comprises eleven articles, eight of which are scholarly ones.

Our colleagues Gašper Mrak, Alma Zavodnik Lamovšek and Alenka Fikfak deal with the theme of settlement patterns in the Slovenian countryside in an article entitled SUSTAINABLE SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE COUNTRYSIDE – SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE SLOVENIAN ALPS.

Alongside new emerging concepts of spatial interventions that not only involve issues of environmental protection but also cultural, economic and political aspects of sustainability, the main problems associated with investigating the development of settlements in the Slovenian Alps are as follows: How to enable the co-existence of traditional settlement patterns in the pristine protected areas? How to ensure the co-existence of traditional rural architecture with contemporary structures designed for a large number of visitors? And how to combine all of these components with a story of attractiveness? Some answers may be found here.

Jernej Markelj, Manja Kitek Kuzman and Martina Zbašnik-Senegačnik write about assessment methods for sustainable built environments which have evolved on the basis of local characteristics and legislation. Their article, entitled A REVIEW OF BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT METHODS, offers a review of some of them: BREEAM, LEED, DGNB and SBTool.

Andreja Benko, a trainee researcher, writes about planning procedures in our most common type of residential building construction in her article called CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE OF SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSES IN SLOVENIA. She analyses the relationships among the designer, the investor and other participants in the procedure. Key evidence of a good work performance is shown in the time plan for the construction and design stages. The optimum design procedure is demonstrated through a stage-sequential model which provides the fastest way to achieve the objective.

Peter Šenk depicts the dualities between an infrastructure system and the units or components plugged into it. With the title THE PLUG-IN CONCEPT: TECHNOLOGY AND AESTHETICS OF CHANGE, the article primarily discusses town planning.

After returning from the United States, our young colleague Srđan Nađ again turns to its architecture. His article entitled AMERICAN MULTI-DWELLING ARCHITECTURE OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE 19TH CENTURY AND FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY nicely shows the evolution and directions of design in the first half of the twentieth century when the issue of dense settlement in limited spaces had to be tackled. It mainly depicts the city of Chicago where between 1924 and 1929 several quality housing complexes were built which deviated from the housing construction practised until then by applying consistent ground plan designs.

Our colleague Luka Jančič deals with the issue of representation. His article called THE IMPACT OF MULTILAYERED TECHNOLOGIES ON ARCHITECTURAL MODEL PRODUCTION AND USE presents a few examples along with the issue of materialising abstract designs. The examples given may also be used for the analysis, assessment and development of ideas about spatial design.

Our colleagues from Niš, Biljana Arandjelović and Ana Momčilović-Petronijević, deal with vernacular architecture. Their contribution has the title THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC BUILDINGS, THE CASE OF SERBIA. After their arrival, the Slavs primarily made use of local materials and simple techniques which, unfortunately, do not last long: timber, earth and stone. In doing so, they used locally available timber which they exploited down to the very last piece by applying wood joinery techniques and technologies.

A group made up of Alenka Fikfak, Milan Dinevski, Petra Ježek, Nace Nagode, Gašper Skalar Rogič, Urša Suhadolnik Vovko and Jakob Šuštar wrote an article entitled THE CULTURE OF THE SETTLEMENT SPACE IN SLOVENIA. They conducted a survey on the topic of the culture of the settlement space, which primarily refers to the visual image among perceptions of the settlement space. Their contribution presents the results of research which involved spatial management professionals and senior students from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Ljubljana.

Kornélia Kissfazekas wrote an article featuring modern content for Hungary: TRANSFORMATIONS OF HUNGARIAN TRADITIONAL TOWN CENTERS IN THE ERA OF SOCIALISM - TWO CASE STUDIES. The article relates to two towns: Kecskemet and Szeckzard. The solution in Szeckzard is a better one because it acknowledges the existing conditions and the town’s size, whilst Kecskemet came into being as a typical political town and is, above all, oversized.

Our former professor Blaž Vogelnik suggests quite a few specific solutions in his article A PROPOSAL FOR RECONSTRUCTING THE RESIDENTIAL TOWERS ON ROŠKA STREET. These towers are undoubtedly the riskiest buildings in Ljubljana in terms of seismic safety. He proposes the rehabilitation of these structures following a philosophy which leaves the building interiors untouched and implements all the necessary reinforcements outside the structures themselves.

Larisa Brojan, a trainee researcher, presents the work she did for her doctoral thesis in the United States in an article called A REPORT ON INVESTIGATIONS CARRIED OUT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, AMHERS (USA). Straw bale construction is more widespread in both the United Kingdom and the United States than we imagine in our country. But interest in straw bale construction can also be seen in Slovenia; in the past three years at least six buildings have been constructed by utilising a structural system with straw bales filling in between.

The Editor