International Competition for the Cultural Capital of Europe 2012

Design and text: Tamás Lévai, Ágnes Jószai, József Árva, Ferenc Haász

Regarding the city as a cultural web, the New Maribor Art Gallery can be considered as a neuron, in which the cultural nervous system of the city coagulates. Three characteristic elements define this place within the urban texture. On one hand the river bank of the Dráva and so the presence of water featuring the natural environment. On the other hand two different characters of the built environment appearing because of its border situation between the historical city centre and the new developments. These factors form those visual and cultural channels, into which this community place will be embedded. Examining the city’s community spaces we can define the scale and the typical density and network of void spaces which characterize this local web. With the competition concept we tried to continue the weaving of this web. The strong influential elements flocculated the building to a being-like formation, which is part of the artificial nature.