Borut Burger
O mojem spominu na Sobo 25
Borut Burger
Kaj je še v mojem spominu o Sobi 25 po štiridesetih (!) letih? Kolegi, s katerimi sem se prijavil in prišel v studio prof. Ravnikarja, v sobo, ki je bila v drugem nadstropju faksa in ima številko 25. Tam smo potem viseli vsak dan in čakali, da se začne študijski program. Pa se ni zgodilo nič takega. Nekateri so obupali in odšli drugam. Prišle so govorice, da je stari Ravnikar brez svojih asistentov. Mi čakamo, stari se skriva v svoji sobi in nas ignorira, včasih pride ven, ker mora najbrž na WC, včasih kakšno navrže. Mi smo v sobi, in ker se nič ne zgodi, pričnemo nekakšen
svoj program. Enkrat Fuzdo prinese porno film, jaz ga vrtim, ker sem imel projektor. Ravnikar pride v zatemnjeno sobo, nekaj časa gleda film, nato pristopi k meni in me vpraša, če bi posnel film o Plečniku. Popolnoma presenečen odgovorim, da seveda bi, čeprav mi ni jasno, zakaj ravno o Plečniku, ki je takrat čisto 'out of time', pozabljen, nekakšen zadrt klasicist. Tako sem dobil seminarsko nalogo. Ne spomnim se, kako so do seminarske prišli drugi, najbrž ima vsak svojo zgodbo, ki se zgodi največkrat naključno. S Sovo se lotiva snemanja, ker sva imela 8 mm kamero. Posnameva nekaj kadrov, Ravnikar si vzame čas in gremo okrog Nuka. Slavni profesor razlaga osebno enemu študentu - kakšen privilegij! Ravnikarja si lahko videl samo na predavanju, potem pa si imel opravka le z asistenti, s standardnim programom in tradicionalno disciplino. Na koncu se je nekaterim uspelo prebiti v
nebesa, ampak tudi tu se izvršuje le njegova (božja) volja. Jaz pa pred Nukom, da posnamem film! Ravnikar razlaga o Plečnikovi zamisli fasade, o pomenu vogala, o ogrlici in 'štimungu', ki ga naredi zahajajoče sonce, o 'štimungu' v Klimtovih risbah. Poznate Klimta? Ne? Dejte no, in gre. Jaz grem potem raziskovat secesijski Dunaj in odkrijem vso tisto svetovljansko kulturo, blišč imperija in Plečnika deset let pred tistim famoznim odkritjem Plečnika naših postmodernistov in vseh tistih, ki nam razlagajo Plečnika do današnjih dni. Lepe slike, razkošne edicije, ki ne dosežejo besedila, ki ga je o njem napisal Ravnikar davno prej.
Kar naenkrat se začne tudi študijski program. Ravnikar prične s predavanji, sledi presenečenje, ker predavajo tudi zunanji vabljeni predavatelji, ki večinoma sploh niso
Borut Burger, AB, No 5, 1972
arhitekti, ampak v tistem času vidni sociologi, znani urbanisti, pa tudi kakšen arhitekt. Kaj se dogaja? Prejšnje generacije so v isti sobi pridno risale arhitektonske programe pod skrbnim nadzorom treh asistentov. Risali so še prejšnje leto, jaz pa v tistem semestru še nisem potegnil črte. Poslušam predavanja iz urbane sociologije. Film je dobival nove kadre, Ravnikar se je držal za glavo. Kaj pa je to? To je pa čisto trivialno! Zakaj pa ste posneli to žensko? Dejte no. Nekateri kadri so tudi uspeli, kot na primer sence na fasadi Nuka. Prikaz Plečnikove arhitekture na filmu je nedvomno presegal moje in Sovino znanje ter najine zmožnosti. Na koncu semestra sva zmontirala posnete kadre. Film je potem enkrat skrivnostno izginil iz mojega predala. Mislim, da je 'corpus delicti' vzel Ravnikar. Kdo bi sicer? Plečnika pa sem dojemal počasi, z leti. Takrat monumentalne arhitekture ni bilo mogoče misliti. Hiše naj se gradi-
Iz strani AB No5, 1972
My memories of Room 25
Borut Burger
What remains in my memory after 40 years; colleagues with whom I applied and was accepted into the studio of Professor Ravnikar on the second floor of the Architecture department building in the room number 25. We were hanging around there efor days waiting for the study program to begin. But nothing happened. Some students gave up and went elsewhere. We heard rumours that Professor Ravnikar had dismissed all his assistants.
We are waiting, the old man is hiding in his room ignoring us, he occasionally comes out probably going to the bathroom, and mutters something on the side. We are in the room and because nothing happens, we start some program of our own. Once Fuzdo brought a pornographic film, I operated it as
I had a projector. Professor Professor Ravnikar enters the darkened room and watches the film for few minutes then approaches me and asks me if I would make a film about Plečnik.
I was completely taken by surprise but answered: 'yes of course I would' although I did not understand why about Plečnik, who was at the time a completely forgotten, stubborn classicist of some sort. That's how I got my first assignment. I do not remember how I got the next one and I believe all of us have their own story, mostly random and accidental. We started recording the film about Plečnik with Souvan as we owned an 8mm camera. Professor Ravnikar took his time and we went sightseeing the Plečnik's national library building. It was quite unbelievable that famous Professor was communicating with us students on one to one basis; a big privilege! Profes-
sor Ravnikar could be seen only when lecturing and students only communicated with his assistants, standard program and traditional discipiine. At the end some students were invited to the heaven the so called drawing room at the top floor but there they had to work only by the Professors strict (God's) will.
And I was there in front of Plečnik's building to make a film! Professor Ravnikar was talking to me about Plečnik's ideas ablout façade, the importance of the corner, the necklace and the atmosphere of the sunset, mentioning Klimt's drawings. 'Do you know Klimt?' he asked me. 'No', I said. 'Go on then' he said and went away. Afterwards I went into researching all about the turn of the century art movements in Vienna, and discovered all that cosmopolitan culture, splendour of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and architect Plečnik. This was ten
years prior to post-modernists famously rediscovering architect Plečnik and everybody talking about him. All the beautiful pictures, luxury editions, which are mostly incomparable to the essay written about Plečnik by Professor Ravnikar long ago. Suddenly our study program started with Professor Ravnikar's lecture followed by invited external speakers, who were mostly non-architects, but recognized sociologists, urbanists and practising architects. What was going on? Previous generations were in the same busy room drafting their architectural programs under the close supervision of three assistants but I had not drawn a line in the whole semester and we were following courses lectures on urban sociology.
The movie was getting new cadres and Professor Ravnikar was complaining 'What is this? This is quite trivial! Why did you record
Borut Burger, Božo Podlogar, Tomaž Souvan, 'Tegnjena streha', izdelava modela v tovarni Induplati Jarše
jo s poceni in tudi iz zavrženih materialov za krajšo dobo trajanja, hiše naj bodo premične, saj tako tudi živimo (bomo živeli). Zidanje in masivne konstrukcije so zgodovina, tukaj so lahke konstrukcije (Fuller, Otto Frei), pnevmatske konstrukcije. Tako smo se lotili pnevmatske arhitekture Souvan, Podlogar in jaz, nastala je še ena brošura v Sobi 25. Kolaž in tipkarija, nobenega risanja. Kinetična arhitektura je tudi naslov moje diplome. Poleti v Londonu, ko sem na AA poslušal predavanja in gledal diase Archigrama na treh projektorjih hkrati, sem bil še bolj prepričan, da je to prava tema. Ravnikar mi je sicer predlagal, da bi kot diplomsko nalogo narisal ljubljanske gostilne, 'pajzelne' in bifeje ter modele, ki so tičali tam noter. Takrat sem bil res 'junc', ko nisem sprejel tega izziva. Kljub temu pa ni bilo vse pozabljeno. Ravnikar je predlagal, da se prekrije antične mozaike pri osnovni šoli Majde Vrhovnik z lahko, lebdečo proso-
jno streho, omogočil nam je prvo naročilo. Žal ni uspelo, da bi bila konstrukcija strehe prednapeta plastificirana tkanina brez podpore. Izvedena je jeklena tlačna konstrukcija na stebrih, tkanina je le položena, ni napeta. Ampak to je že druga zgodba.
Soba 25 utripa tudi kot celota, spontano, brez Ravnikarjeve pobude. Najprej seveda v gostilnah, kjer so običajno zbrani vsi, največkrat v najbližji Lipi, pa Lovec, Križanke, Činkole, klet Uniona. Enkrat menda pride Ravnikar, a kmalu pobegne, vzdušje je utrgano. Kump ima točko in bruha ogenj, slika Tita na steni je zakrita z duplerico Starta, velika slika divjadi iz Lipe je kmalu v Sobi 25 itd. Tu je točka farma (režija Fuzdo), kjer se derejo vsi naenkrat, ampak vsak je druga žival. »Slavuj, mukaj!« prigovarja Fuzdo Slavcu, ki se mu zdi to bedasto, čeprav je že primerno opit. V
farmi je pravi duh sobe št. 25: vsak je druga žival, ampak vsi posamezniki se derejo skupaj, v skupni farmi. Efekt je bil (posebno za druge goste) nedvomno zelo prepričljiv.
Nekako tako se dogaja tudi v Sobi 25. Ni skupnega idejnega programa - manifesta, vendar spontano nastane skupen 'časopis' AA na pisalnem stroju in ciklostilu. Prispeva večina prebivalcev Sobe 25. Vsak piše po svoje, o svojih projektih, idejah in videnjih, ni uredniške politike, združuje atmosfera svobodne kreacije, duh tistega časa. Cjene ima v žepu rdečo knjižico Mao Dzedonga, Slavc v svoji standardni sivini stalno nosi Kevina Lyncha, Kump propagira anarhistične ideje. Potem se to razmnoži, spne v celoto in nastane AA, časopis Sobe 25. Nastane svobodna katedra, pridejo najrazličnejši predavatelji, arhitektura ni več hermetična,
navezuje se na različna področja.
Danes mi je jasno, da sem imel velik privilegij, da sem se znašel v Sobi 25 prav v tistem letu. V sobi, smo bili najrazličnejši modeli in Bojana, se med sabo odlično štekali, v sobi, kjer je potekal enkratni eksperiment svobodne ustvarjalnosti, čisto nasprotje standardnemu, togemu učnemu programu. Kot mi je znano, Ravnikar ni bil pristaš politehnične vzgoje arhitektov, ampak je zagovarjal akademski način izobrazbe. To seveda ni mogoče pri tolikšnem številu kandidatov za njegov studio in so zato tudi pri njem nastajali arhitekti podobno kot pri drugih profesorjih na faksu, po nekem učnem programu, ki so ga izvajali asistenti. Tu ni omogočena tista svobodna ustvarjalnost študenta, ni neposrednega stika s profesorjem, ki bi usmerjal študenta individualno,
Borut Burger, Božo Podlogar, Tomaž Souvan: 'Tegnjena streha'.
this woman? Please...' Some shots were also quite good like the shadows on the facade. Movie Presentation of Plečnik's architecture on film was certainly beyond our capabilities. At the end of semester we edited the recorded scenes but the film mysteriously disappeared from my drawer and I believe that'corpus delicti' was taken by Professor Ravnikar. Who else could it be? My understanding of Plečnik improved gradually over the years. At the time monumental architecture was not an issue. Houses were to be built with inexpensive or even discarded materials, they shouldn't last, the house should be mobile, and serve the needs of future living Solid masonry construction was considered history, we were admiring lightweight constructions (Fuller, Frei Otto), or pneumatic constructions. We started researching inflatable architecture: with Souvan and Podlogar
we designed a brochure with only text and pictures but no drawing. Kinetic architecture is the title of my diploma thesis. After I attended courses at the AA in London and watched multi-screen projections of Archi-gram projects. I was even more convinced I was on the right path.. Professor Ravnikar suggested me a thesis about the pubs in Ljubljana. I would make a sketch of the places together with the people that were sitting in there at the time. I was still quite young and stupid and I didn't accept the challenge. However, not everything is forgotten. Professor Ravnikar got us the first project in Ljubljana to design roof cover for the ancient mosaics with light and floating translucent roof. Technically it was not carried through according to our proposed construction principles, but this is another story.
Students of Room 25 also had dynamics of
their own as a group without input and interventions of Professor Ravnikar.
The pubs where everybody gathered were the nearby Lipa, Lovec, Krizanke, Cinkole and Union cellar. Once even Professor Ravnikar joined us but soon he escaped as the atmosphere was too wild. Kump has a performance spitting fire, Tito's picture on the wall is obscured by pages from Start magazine, the big painting of game animals from Lipa ends up in the Room 25. Special performance of animal farm directed by Fuzdo with everybody shouting at once as a different animal. 'Slavuj say moo' is Fuzdo telling to Slavuj, who is finding it a little silly although he is partly drunk. The farm presents the true spirit of Room 25, where everyone is a different animal howling together in our common farm. The effect was definitely quite persuasive.
Something similar is going on in the Room 25. There is no common ideological program, no manifesto, but an internal newspaper 'titled AA' published spontaneously typed and cyclostyled. Majority of the student members contribute. Everyone writing in their own way, about their own projects, ideas and visions, without editorial policy our common denominator is the atmosphere of free creation, the spirit of the time. Cjene has the red book of Mao Zedong in his pocket, Slavc is always carrying the book by Kevin Lynch in the pocket of his gray jacket, Kump propagates anarchist ideas. All this was put together, copied and stapled together and the AA newspaper of Room 25 was started. We had chair speakers coming from different academic fields and architecture was not a hermetic discipline anymore but related to different other areas of knowledge and activities.
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Stran iz AA
kar je bistvenega pomena za njegov razvoj. Ravnikar je tisto leto, ko je prekinil s svojimi asistenti, zastavil delo v studiu skrajno radikalno, interdisciplinarno, dopuščal je svobodno voljo študentov, osebno je delal s svojimi študenti. Idealno in utopično.
Tako seveda ni dolgo trajalo. Jeseni je bilo že vse, kot je moralo biti. Moja generacija je zasedla položaje Ravnikarjevih asistentov in vse je bilo tako kot prej. Stari je povsem odnehal in je bil spet skrit v svoji sobi. Kmalu potem je prišla ideologija postmoderne, arhitektura je bila spet umetnost, kot je zapisal nekje eden od njenih protagonistov, ki je uspešno zastavil kariero na faksu. Dogajanje v sobi št. 25 je pozabljeno, nikoli ovrednoteno, čeprav še vedno vredno razmisleka. Danes pišemo le še spomine.
: ■
Razstava Soba 25, Edo Mihevc obišče razstavo v Ravnikarjevi Sobi 25, 1971
Borut Burger, 1972
It is clear to me that I had a great privilege to found myself in the Room 25 during that year, in the room where we were different blokes and Bojana.
We had a perfect chemistry between us, in the room where this educational experiment was taking place full of free creativity, the exact opposite of the rigid standard curriculum. ^s I understand, Professor Ravnikar was not a fan of polytechnic education for architects but advocated academic educational principles. This approach was difficult in studios full of students so until then Professor Ravnikar was using his assistants to deal with masses of students, and this generated the output of architects similar to other studios in the faculty of architecture according to the curriculum carried out by assistants. There was no possibility for free student creativity; there was no direct contact with the Profes-
sor, who would work with individual student, which is essential for someone's intellectual development.
This year, when Professor Ravnikar sacked his assistants he set out a radical and interdisciplinary curriculum, he allowed the students to freely exercise their creati-vity, he made himself available to them and worked with them. Idealism and Utopia... Our story of course did not last for long. In autumn all was as it should have been. My generation occupied positions of Professor Ravnikar's assistants and all was as before. Old man gave up and he was again hiding in his room.
Soon after came the postmodern ideology, architecture is art again, as recorded somewhere by one of its protagonists, who made a very successful career at the faculty of architecture. The activities and developments
in Room 25 were forgotten, never evaluated, although still worth considering. Today we are only writing memories.