Designed by SADAR + VUGA, the Sci-Park Maribor scientific park is founded by the University of Maribor and is to occupy a section of a degraded former industrial area of Tezno at the south fringe of the city. Six individual buildings with a combined 30.000 m2 total floor area will be constructed on a 80.000 m2 site in several phases. These buildings, together with a shared parking garage, form ‘garden islands’ that accommodate irregular shapes of the site’s border; the way these islands are arranged on the site creates different ambients of open urban areas among them.
More images and architect’s description after the break.
Three larger exterior ambients are created by the location, orientation and height of each particular island: the eastern urban square, the southern green square and the main square next to the first building of the scientific park. This way, the maintained landscape is able to act as a propitious place for the employees, users, and visitors of the Scientific Park to meet.
The First Sci-Park Building in Maribor with an underground parking garage and a total area of 7.270 m2 is placed at the centre of the northern part of the site. The building volume follows the planned future alignment of Ledina road yet points towards the south with its eastern part so as to mark the main point of entry to the Sci-Park area. The entrance into the area and the significance of the First building is also emphasised by the articulation of the building volume, which rises from the western towards the eastern part.
The building volume and the garage are connected into a compact whole through semi-public programmes (an auditorium, a restaurant, an exhibition space). Together, they form a garden island.
The building and the island are intertwined in the basement, on the ground floor, the mezzanine, and the 1st floor, while the levels 2 through 5 are intended for generic offices.
A planted slope located on the underground garage roof acts as the southern garden, defining the southern entrance to the building as a garden entrance and blending it with the surroundings.
