Ljubljana in njenih šest krakov

Miha Dešman, Jurij Kobe (1)

Miha Dešman: Načrtovanje projektov v mestu izhaja iz prepoznanja urbane oblike in dejstva, da se urbane oblike skozi čas spreminjajo. Ko je enkrat to jasno, postane projekt kos sestavljanke, del širše kompozicije oz. pripovedi. Eno od ključnih izhodišč projekta postane povezovanje s sosednjimi deli (zgodbe) mesta v smiselne povezave. To je klasični pristop, ki sta ga v Ljubljani razvijala tako Plečnik kot Ravnikar in predstavlja miselni okvir, v katerem novi projekti odgovarjajo na probleme, ki so v prejšnjih razvojnih fazah ostali nerešeni in s tem odprti za nove intervencije. Ljubljanske vpadnice so takšne nedokončane zgodbe.

Jurij Kobe: Zgodbe vpadnic segajo daleč v zgodovino … Peta avenija je začela deliti New York na polovici vzhodno in zahodno od nje, ko se je ob njo leta 1862 naselila Caroline Schermerhorn Astor in se je 30 let za tem dvignil hotel Astoria in v tridesetih letih 20. stoletja tik ob njem Empire State Building. Skoraj istega leta 19. stoletja, leta 1864, je začel v svojem tedaj že desetletnem urbanističnem preoblikovanju Pariza baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann uresničevati Avenue de l'Opera. In še malo nazaj: Via Salaria s severa ali Via Appia proti jugu sta bili v rimski prostorski sliki vedno posebnega pomena.

Grške ceste, ki so vodile v mesta, so spremljale herme. Hermes, po katerem so te spremljevalke in s posebnim pomenom označevalke teh cest dobile ime, je sicer olimpijski bog, zavetnik popotnikov, trgovcev, pa tudi roparjev in tatov, saj se njihova polja delovanja nekako prekrivajo … In če gremo še nazaj: Egipčanska avenija sfing v Luksorju (Karnaku) je pravzaprav že arhitekturna interpretacija nastajanja (grajenja) pomena te tipologije prostora.

Vedno je avenija (venire, lat.: prihajati), cesta prihoda, pomenila in predstavljala poseben ambient v urbanem tkivu. V njih se je napovedoval značaj prostora, ki se mu približujemo: njegova sedanjost, preteklost, in hierarhijo med drugimi prostori, pa tudi značaj kraja, od koder prihajajo. Slovenci imamo, čudno, za njeno poimenovanje nekako agresiven izraz 'vpadnica'. Lahko bi ga primerjali s francoskim 'boulevarjem' (boulverser: preobrniti, v velik nered, na glavo spraviti, premetati, podreti, Fr.-sl. slovar A. Grad, 1990), ki je zelo verjetno dobil ime ob Haussmannovih smelih urejanjih starega Pariza.

Tako avenije – vpadnice imajo tudi za urbano tkivo Ljubljane posebno vlogo: z ene strani jih je oblikovala geografska konfiguracija, ki je usmerjala krakasto zasnovo mesta, z druge središčna lega v regiji s prostorsko tako rekoč enakomerno razporejenimi dostopi iz smeri pomembnejših centrov v regiji in širše. Posamezne vpadnice ne pomenijo le enega od prihodov v mesto. S svojimi različnimi značaji so izoblikovale vsakokratno življenjsko os območja mesta, kjer so se znašle.

Poseben čar in značilnost ljubljanskih vpadnic, avenij, ki pa so tudi izhodnice(?), je dejstvo, da so razmeroma ravne in usmerjene ne le skoraj direktno (naravnost) proti svojemu cilju, kamor vodijo, temveč nudijo odhajajočim vsaka svojo značilno prostorsko sliko. Človek resnično vidi smer in oddaljen kraj, prostor, kamor želi. Silhuete različnih ne posebno oddaljenih hribov ali planin mu omogočajo povsem elementarno naravno orientacijo v širšem prostoru. Odhajajoči se resnično počuti suverenega v prostoru ne le mesta, ki ga zapušča, temveč bi lahko rekli skoraj – kar planeta! Čeprav so stari zemljevidi bistveno večjo pozornost posvečali rekam kot cestam – reke so bile pač pomembnejši transportni prostor, pa tudi potem večje ovire – se zelo zgodaj pojavijo tri ceste, ki vodijo v Ljubljano oziroma skoznjo: Tržaška cesta, Dunajska cesta in Dolenjska cesta so seveda že krepko pred Rimljani, predstavljale osi in vzroke tukajšnje naselitve.

Tržaška cesta je z izravnavo smeri, podaljšanja od viške cerkve naprej proti jugozahodu, kar sicer ni bil njen originalni potek, dobila prekrasen skoraj povsem raven prostor s parabolično konfiguracijo, ki z vsakega mesta omogoča dojemanje njenega prostora. Vendar je oblikovanje tega prostora ostalo nekako naključno vse do druge polovice 19. stoletja. Kot izrazit mestotvoren prostor glavnega mesta je začela to načrtneje oblikovati postavitev mogočnega kompleksa Tobačne tovarne. Na spodnjem koncu Tržaške so v začetku 20. stoletja njen prostor zastavili s postavitvijo nove cerkve sv. Antona Padovanskega. Ob izravnavi njenega poteka, ki je prej vodil mimo najstarejše ohranjene ljubljanske cerkve na viškem pokopališču, je bilo potrebno nadomestilo.

V poznih dvajsetih je pomen Tržaške poudarila zazidava malih vil za srednji razred Stan in dom, ki je Tržaško nagovorila z zelo skromnim poudarkom. Lahko bi rekli, da od tedaj naprej prostor Tržaške ni bil dojet kot neverjeten urbani potencial. V šestdesetih letih je ljubljanski LUZ, po tedanji Ravnikarjevi smernici postavitve stanovanjskih zazidav v heliotermično geometrijo, zasejal večjo stanovanjsko zazidavo ob srednjem delu njenega poteka, ki jo je spremljala zasnova skromnega trgovskega centra. Poznejše pomembnejše zazidave so se, iz neverjetnih razlogov, zadrževale v njenem ozadju. V osemdesetih so se Tržaške spomnili na Fakulteti za arhitekturo. Večjo srečo s pozornostjo je imela Dunajska – Tyrševa - Titova – Dunajska (imena kažejo na obdobja večje ali manjše nacionalne samozavesti). Je edina od vpadnic, kjer so se vidno uresničila neka oblikovalska vodila – v najbolj srečnem času ljubljanskega urbanističnega urejanja po obdobju popotresnega načrtovanja, in v času 'Generalnega urbanističnega plana' (LUZ). GUP iz leta 1966 je vsaj tako pomembno kot edini prej Fabianijev 'Generalni regulacijski načrt', začrtal urbanistični prostor Ljubljane. Oba sta bila po pravici 'Generalna'! Višinski poudarki ob malih razširitvah njenega prostora so se urbanistično prijeli tudi v daljšem časovnem obdobju. Pomembnost GUP-a je kaj kmalu poudarjal in hkrati že tudi obžaloval njegovo slabo izvajanje Edvard Ravnikar v svojem članku v Kroniki slovenskih mest. Vendarle je imel prostor te ceste seveda tudi srečo svoje pozicije 'Carda' in ene glavnih razvojnih smeri mesta (zahvaljujoč se tudi svojemu tedanjemu imenu?). Ab-jevci smo v 80. letih le po tej cesti vozili tuje predavatelje z Brnika v Ljubljano, da bi jim mesto pokazali kolikor mogoče mestno. Pomembnost teh dveh ulic sta ob Ljubljanskem kongresu 1820 poudarjala efemerna slavoloka, ki sta pozdravljala prihajajoče vladarje!

Verjetno enako stara kot gornji dve je smer Dolenjske ceste, ki se je nekdaj (v celoti) imenovala Karlovška. Je, tako kot povojna dolenjska regija, malo ostala žrtev svojega velikega deleža kolaboracionizma (ob, absurd!, največjem jedru odpora proti okupatorju). V njenem prostoru se predmestne gradnje povsem zunaj merila še danes na novo vrinjajo v nekako vendarle začeto vizijo oblikovanja nekega urbanega prostora, ki se je začel nakazovati ob Strelišču, v rakovniškem centru.

Tudi Gosposvetska – Celovška cesta sodi med najstarejše smeri, ki mesto navezujejo na širšo regijo. V svojem delu skozi starejši del mesta čaka na to, kar Dunajska dobiva že petdeset let. Žal v njenem poteku skozi stari del mesta (skozi bivšo vas Šiška) zahtevnejše urbanistične zasnove zvečine niso bile deležne posebne arhitekturne skrbnosti. Bistveno večji uspeh oblikovanja njenega prostora je bil dosežen v območju 'Zgornje Šiške', v njenem nekdanjem občinskem, današnjem kulturnem centru. Se pa v njenem zgornjem delu vendarle kaže neka misel, čeprav je bil to čas vere v koncentracijo. Bo projekt Partnerstvo Celovška kdaj rodil sadove?

Trubarjeva cesta, nekdaj sv. Petra oziroma Šempetrska cesta, ima v zgodovini mesta Ljubljane posebno mesto in vlogo. Že najstarejše karte mesta vključujejo zunaj mestnega obzidja cesto proti šempetrski, najstarejši fari na območju Ljubljane, skupaj z odcepoma – enim do nekdanje Blatne vasi (današnja Mala ulica, ki se nadaljuje v Kolodvorsko ulico) in cesto v Kravjo dolino in nato v oddaljeno vas Vodmat (današnja Vidovdanska cesta). V svoji svojskosti je Trubarjeva cesta na poseben način vztrajala tudi s svojo vsebino: tipična predmestna cesta na vzhodnem obrobju, kamor so se vedno odrivale mestu manj primerne dejavnosti in vsebine – zato tu predel usnjarjev, pa tudi beznic. Tu so se odlagale male zgodbe vseh vrst prihajajočih, ki so skupaj s starejšimi prebivalci mesta – ljubitelji tega prostora – izoblikovali njeno današnjo v mestu enkratno atmosfero.

Novejši aveniji, prihodnici v merilu mestne zgodovine sta Zaloška in Šmartinska cesta. Že njuni imeni govorita o njunem bolj lokalnem značaju. Obe označuje njuna vzhodna lega, kjer se je, podobno, kot v zgodnji dobi mesta na Trubarjevi (tedaj Šempetrski) cesti, naslojilo tisto manj prijetno dišeče – seveda v drugih dimenzijah. Je pa prav ta vsebina že v industrijskem, še bolj pa v postindustrijskem času postala magnet različnim programom. Če so se v sedemdesetih in osemdesetih tu začele razvijati nove soseske – sprva izrazitih prišlekov, so veliki industrijski volumni v dobi prestrukturiranja gospodarstva začeli spreminjati svoj program in postali atraktivni za vse mesto.

Zanimivo je, da so se, obratno, kot pogosto na zahodu, soseske sprva 'prišlekov' – Štepanjsko naselje, Nove Fužine, v novejšem času Nove Poljane, v tem obdobju tudi sociološko neverjetno prijele in prostorsko vrasle v mesto, je njihov nagovor urbanemu prostoru cest, ki jih napajajo (vpadnic), nekako nesrečno zaostal. Priložnosti kolikor želimo! Kje torej tičijo zavore?

MD: Urbanistična teorija od Lyncha (2) naprej postavi dva temeljna koncepta mesta: klasično mesto – mesto kot kraj, lokus, sedimentirano mesto na eni strani in mesto tokov, globalno mesto, razpršeno mesto na drugi strani. S prehodom iz prvega proti drugemu se oblikuje značaj mestnih prostorov, zlasti vpadnic, ki vodijo od centra do roba (3).

JK: Zanimivo: tako generično, (beri naključno), kakor nekoč, se prostor vpadnic najpogosteje oblikuje tudi danes: nalaganje efemernosti vodi v suburbanizacijo. Vpadnice so direktne povezave suburbij med sabo in s centrom. Na neki način so, čeprav po njih poteka javni promet, nasprotje javnega in prostor prevlade neformalnega.

MD: V šestdesetih so se ljubljanske vpadnice iz zaporedja urbanih prostorov, povezanih z lokalnim prebivalstvom, spremenile v cestne koridorje (prometne arterije) in izgubile urbani značaj. Formalno koherenco je zamenjala dostopnost. Dostopnost je spodbudila krizo starega mestnega središča in eksploziven razvoj na periferiji, kot sta v Ljubljani BTC in Rudnik, predvsem pa povzročila razseljevanje in rast suburbij okoli mesta ter tudi suburbanizacijo podeželja. Vpadnice so postale del regionalne mreže, v kateri so glavno vlogo prevzele avtoceste in obvoznice, z njimi pa avtomobil pred pešcem in kolesarjem.

JK: Še ena značilnost ljubljanskih vpadnic, ki se vse preveč počasi, a vendarle začenja izkoriščati v razvoju mestnega prostora in njegove funkcije: urbanistično unikatna vzporednost vpadnic in železniških prog, ki predstavlja neverjeten potencial razvoju mestne krakaste zasnove.

MD: Danes postaja vse bolj jasno, da mesta niso prvenstveno namenjena avtom. Tudi avti že postajajo manjši, lažji, bolj prilagodljivi in varnejši. Čeprav še ne znajo voziti in parkirati avtonomno, pa se iz sfere zasebnega promet v mestu širi v domeno skupnega. Poleg klasičnega javnega transporta nastajajo nove oblike mobilnosti, kot je car sharing, iskanje prevozov po družabnih omrežjih, kot npr. spletni portal prevozi.org, razvijajo se ideje o mestnih avtomobilčkih na posojo po modelu mestnih koles itd. Lastništvo avta ni več samoumevno v mnogih naprednih mestih, tudi v Ljubljani. S tem se tudi vloga vpadnic spreminja. Potrebni so novi odgovori, novi koncepti za njihovo smiselno urbano in prometno preobrazbo. Eden od odgovorov je (še bolj intenzivna) internacionalizacija Ljubljane, v ekonomskem in demografskem smislu, turizmu, gospodarstvu in arhitekturi. Drugi odgovor je navidezno v nasprotju s prvim: gre za nasprotovanje in zmanjševanje posledic rastoče globalne družbe (se pravi, osvobojene lokacije), ki jo usmerjajo mediji in ki temelji na potrošništvu. Specifičnost lokacije je ponovno prepoznan kot vir izkušnje in pomena, ki je avtentičen in ima potencial.

Tretji (in v tem tekstu zadnji) odgovor je upoštevanje tehnološke in socialne revolucije, ki jo živimo in vzpostavitev pozitivne vizije družbe in prostora. Pri pogledu v to prihodnost se lahko naslonimo na Jeremy-a Rifkina, na njegovo tudi v slovenščino prevedeno uspešnico Družba ničelnih mejnih stroškov (Založba Modrijan, 2015). Gre za popis prihodnjega razvoja (zlasti zahodnega, industrijsko razvitega) sveta, v katerem s postopoma prihajajočim ›internetom stvari‹ prihaja doba skoraj brezplačnih dobrin in storitev, ki jo bo zaznamoval globalen vzpon kulture deljenja in souporabe – ter neizogiben zaton kapitalizma kot samoumevne družbene ureditve. Prostor pa bo obstal tudi potem, ko bo kapitalizem presežen. Pomembno bo, kako in kje bomo živeli. Večina nas živi in bo živelo v mestih. Mesta so in bodo kulturna infrastruktura, ki generira spremembe in ki je osnova za današnjo postindustrijsko, digitalizirano, povezano družbo znanja. V primeru vpadnic gre za sistematično vračanje urbanega značaja prostorom vpadnic, z urbanim oblikovanjem in arhitekturo, programi, ureditvami za pešce, pa seveda integriranimi novimi tehnologijami in koncepti.

Vpadnice torej po eni strani potrebujejo operacije, ki bodo sledile Plečnikovim in Ravnikarjevim konceptom, prilagojenim za sodobni čas. To pomeni, da dobijo več arhitekture, zagotoviti jim je potrebno urbani prostor, ritem, globino, pestrost, vsebino. Po drugi strani pa je pozitivne spremembe mogoče doseči z obračanjem negativnih trendov, preseganjem sedanje odvisnosti od prometa, suburbanizacije, kar ni mogoče brez novih informacijskih tehnologij, niti brez nove družbene akcije. Vpadnica kot urbanistični koncept je primer urbanistične naloge, ko je prostor sam "naročnik" naloge, ko predlagane rešitve izhajajo iz samega prostora, potreb in vizij in ne iz interesa posamičnega investitorja. Zato je potreben urbanizem, ki je javen

in ne zaseben.

Zato mora ljubljanska mestna uprava, skupaj z arhitekti in urbanisti, zbrati dovolj poguma in energije, da njihovo današnjo podobo nadgradimo z drzno vizijo in ambicijo po urbani povezanosti, svežini, celo na prvi pogled prevratnih idejah. Oblikovanje vpadnic kot javnih prostorov je del puzzla, del širše kompozicije mesta. Relevantne ideje so tiste, ki bodo prepoznale mesto kot izhodišče za nove urbane oblike. Smisel ukvarjanja s problemom vpadnic je torej v spraševanju, razmišljanju in iskanju odgovorov na vprašanja, ki so ostala nerešena v prejšnjih obdobjih ter v načrtovanju inovativnih rešitev. Ko bomo imeli odgovor, kakšna naj bo prihodnost vpadnic, bomo hkrati s tem začrtali tudi prihodnost mesta.

Opombe

1. Uvodnik je rezultat dopisovanja po elektronski pošti.
2. Lynch, K. (1960). Podoba mesta. Goga: Novo mesto, 2010.
3. Današnja mesta so locirana na nekakšnem hiperteritoriju, kjer imajo povezave preko IKT enako težo kakor grajena omrežja (prometna in komunalna infrastruktura) ter krajina. Čeprav infrastruktura IKT v urbanih krajih vse bolj sestoji iz posamezniku nevidnih elementov (podzemni kabli, brezžična omrežja), je postala enako pomembna kot transportna, vodovodna ali električna.

Ljubljana and its six radials

Miha Dešman, Jurij Kobe (1)

Miha Dešman: The planning of projects in a city is based on the recognition of the urban form and the fact that urban forms change through time. Once that's understood, a project becomes a piece to a puzzle, a part of a wider composition or narrative. Linking the project to neighbouring parts of the (story of the) city so as to form meaningful connections becomes one of its key starting points. This is the classical approach, developed in Ljubljana both by Jože Plečnik and Edvard Ravnikar, and it represents a frame of mind where new projects are responses to problems which have remained unsolved from the previous development phases and as such remain open to new interventions. Ljubljana's arterial roads are such unfinished stories.

Jurij Kobe: Arterial road stories go back a long time in history ... Fifth Avenue began to divide New York into the eastern and western halves after Caroline Schermerhorn Astor set up a residence there in 1862. Thirty years later, The Waldorf Astoria was erected there, and then in the 1930s, the Empire State Building right next to it. Almost the same year of the 19th century, in 1864, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann began to realise the Avenue de l'Opera after having been at work urbanistically redesigning Paris already for ten years. And a little further back in history, Via Salaria from the north and Via Appia toward the south always had a special significance in the spatial circumstance of Rome.

Greek roads leading into towns featured herms. Hermes, whom these companions - and markers with special significance - were named after, is an Olympian god, the patron of travellers, traders, and also of robbers and thieves, since their areas of operation overlap to an extent. And going further back still, the Egyptian Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor (Karnak) is in a way already an architectural interpretation of the generation (construction) of meaning of this spatial typology.

The avenue (from Latin, venire, to arrive), the road of arrival, meant and represented a special ambient in the urban fabric. They were an anticipation of the character of the space one is approaching: its present, its past, and its hierarchy among the other spaces, as well as the character of the place the avenue leads from. The Slovene expression for artery road, "vpadnica", is somewhat aggressive, suggesting an incursion into the city. One could compare it to the French "boulevard" (boulverser: to turn upside down, shake up, create a disarray, ransack), which most likely came into use with Haussmann's ambitious redevelopments of old Paris.

Avenues - arterial roads thus play a special role in Ljubljana's urban fabric, too: from one end they were shaped by the geographical configuration, which informed the radial layout of the city, and from the other by the central location in the region with accesses from the directions of various important centres in the region and beyond in an almost perfectly evenly spaced arrangement. Each avenue represents more than just an access into the city: with their different characters, they have each shaped the life axis of the city's area that they have found themselves in.

A special attraction and a characteristic of Ljubljana's avenues - which lead to as well as away from - is the fact that they are relatively straight. As a result, they do not only point almost towards their destination but each of them offers to those departing its own characteristic spatial image. One can really see their direction and the faraway place, space where one wishes to go. The silhouettes of hills and low mountains relatively close by allow for perfectly elementary natural orientation in the wider space. Departing, one feels confident not only in the space of the city one is leaving, but - you could almost say - the planet at large!

Even though old maps paid much more attention to rivers than roads - rivers being a more important space of transport, as well as a bigger obstacle -, there were three roads leading into and through Ljubljana that featured on maps from quite early on: Tržaška Road, Dunajska Road, and Dolenjska Road. All three of them represented the axes and the causes of settlement at this site long before the age of the Romans.

After Tržaška Road ("Trieste Road") was straightened and extended from the Vič church onwards to the southwest - not its original route -, it received a beautiful, almost completely straight space with a parabolic configuration allowing the perception of its space from every spot. The designing of this space had remained quite haphazard, however, until the 2nd half of the 19th century. The erection of the imposing tobacco factory complex was a more deliberate city-forming step towards designing of a capital-city space. At the lower end of Tržaška, its space was defined by the building of the new church of St Anthony of Padua in the early 1900s: after its route, which had previously led past the oldest preserved church in Ljubljana at the Vič cemetery, was straightened, a replacement was needed.

In the late 1920s, the significance of Tržaška was emphasised by the construction of small individual middle-class homes through Stan in dom housing co-operative, which invoked a faint accentuation of the road. Ever since then, however, the space's incredible urban potential has not seen much recognition. In the 1960s, Ljubljana Urbanistic Institute (LUZ), informed by Edvard Ravnikar’s guidelines on the heliothermic geometrical arrangement of residential developments, engendered a sizeable residential development along the middle section of Tržaška's route, accompanied by a modest retail centre. For one perplexing reason or another, all important later developments kept themselves in the road's background. In the 1980s, the interest in Tržaška was revived at the Faculty of Architecture.

Dunajska – Tyrševa – Titova – Dunajska ("Vienna/Miroslav Tyrš/Josip Broz Tito/Vienna Road" - the names reflect periods of greater or lesser national self-confidence) has been luckier in terms of receiving attention. It's the only artery road where at least some design principles can really be seen to have been implemented – namely principles from the happiest times of Ljubljana's urbanistic regulation, after the 1895 earthquake and in the period of the General Urbanistic Plan (GUP) drafted by LUZ. The GUP from 1966 was at least as important as Maks Fabiani's General Regulation Plan of 1895 in its laying out the urbanistic space of Ljubljana - both plans were rightfully General. The principle of combining elevation accents with small expansions of Ljubljana's space has become a long-term urbanistic mainstay.

The importance of the GUP was stressed - and its poor implementation already lamented - by Edvard Ravnikar in his article in the pre-war magazine Kronika slovenskih mest (Chronicle of Slovene Towns and Cities). Still, the space of this road was fortunate to have the position of the Cardo and one of the city's main developmental axes (possibly due also to its high-profile naming after Marshal Tito?), and whenever foreign lecturers flew into Brnik Airport, us domestic architects always made sure that we took this road as we drove them into town because it made Ljubljana look the most like an actual city.

On the occasion of the Congress of Laibach in 1820, the importance of these two streets was emphasised by two ephemeral triumph arches welcoming the arriving rulers. The southeastern direction of Dolenjska Road ("Lower Carniola Road"), formerly Karlovška after Karlovac, Croatia, is most likely as old as the other two. Just like the entire region of Lower Carniola, it duly fell victim to the fact that a large percentage of its inhabitants were Nazi collaborators during WW2 (though, absurdly, the region also boasted the largest Resistance core of all). In its space, out-of-scale peri-urban buildings keep disrupting the fledgling vision of some sort of urban space design, which began to take shape around the shooting range in Rakovnik community centre.

Gosposvetska – Celovška cesta ("Our Most Holy Lady Road"/"Klagenfurt Road") also counts among the oldest directions which link Ljubljana to the wider region. The section leading through the older part of the city (the former village of Šiška) is continues to wait for what Dunajska has been receiving for the last fifty years; unfortunately, the more demanding urbanistic designs were not carried out with sufficient architectural care. The design of the upper Šiška area, around the former municipal and present-day cultural centre was much more successful, however. This section of Celovška's course does exhibit a degree of architectural thinking despite fact that it was done in the period with great faith in concentration. Will the Šiška Partnership project ever bear fruit?

Trubarjeva cesta ("Primož Trubar Road"), formerly named after St Peter, plays a special role and holds a special place in the history of the city of Ljubljana. Already the oldest town maps feature a road outside the city walls leading towards the parish of St Peter, the oldest parish in the Ljubljana area. The road has a fork: one branch leads to the erstwhile Blatna vas (present day Mala Street leading into Kolodvorska Street) while the other goes to Kravja dolina, and beyond to the remote village of Vodmat (present-day Vidovdanska Street). In its idiosyncrasy, Trubarjeva Road has continued to stand apart with its content, too: as a typical city-limits road on the eastern fringe, it ended up hosting the less desirable activities and content - tanneries, as well as seedy dives. Trubarjeva served as a backdrop to countless little stories of all those arriving; together with the old townspeople who loved the space for what it was, they shaped the road's atmosphere which remains unique within the present-day city.

The two newer avenues in the scale of city history are Zaloška and Šmartinska cesta ("Zalog Road"/"St Martin Road"). Their names already hint at their stay-at- -home character. Both are eastbound, and similarly to the way Trubarjeva did in the earlier history of the city, they attracted many layers of the malodorant – just of another dimension. However, it was this content which acted like a magnet for different programmes, already in the industrial period and even more so in the post-industrial one. While in the 1970s and 80s saw the development of new neighbourhoods - initially very much geared towards newcomers -, the later economic restructuring changed the programmes of the large industrial volumes, which made them attractive for the whole city.

It's interesting that, contrary to the typical Western experience, the neighbourhoods initially built for newcomers - Štepanjsko naselje, Nove Fužine, more recently also Nove Poljane - have enjoyed phenomenal success also sociologically, becoming spatially completely fused into the city. It is only in their correspondence with the urban space of the roads which serve and supply that they have been left behind. Opportunities, therefore, abound. What is holding them back then?

MD: From Lynch (2) onwards, urbanistic theory first lays down two fundamental concepts: the classical city, city as a place, a locus, the sedimentary city on the one hand, and a city of currents, a global city, the dispersed city on the other. The transition from the first to the second shapes the character of the city spaces, and especially the arterial roads which lead from the centre toward the fringe (3).

JK: It's interesting - the generic and random manner in which the space belonging to arterial roads had been designed in the past mostly still applies nowadays, too: the depositing of ephemeralities leads to suburbanisation. Arterial roads are direct connections between suburbias themselves and the centre. In a way - despite public transport that takes place on them -, they are the antithesis of the public and a space of triumph of the informal.

MD: In the 1960s, Ljubljana's arterial roads were transformed from a sequence of urban spaces connected with the local population into road corridors, traffic arteries, and lost their urban character. The formal coherence was replaced by accessibility. Accessibility spurred the crisis of the old city centre and an explosive development on the periphery - exemplified by BTC and Rudnik shopping malls on the outskirts of Ljubljana -, and, chiefly, caused the flight from the city and the growth of the suburbia around the city, as well as the suburbanisation of the countryside. Arterial roads have become a part of the regional network where motorways and ring roads have assumed the main role. Likewise, the car has been given preference over the pedestrian and the cyclist.

JK: Another characteristic of Ljubljana's arterial roads, which has only very slowly begun to be exploited in the development of the city space and its function, is the fact that the arterial roads and railway tracks run parallel to each other, which is urbanistically unique and represents an immense potential for the development of the radial city design.

MD: Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly clear that cities are not primarily intended for cars. Even cars themselves are becoming smaller, lighter, more adaptable, and safer. Though they are currently not (yet) able to drive and park autonomously, the traffic in the city is spreading from the private into the common domain. In addition to the classic public transport, new forms of mobility are springing up, such as car sharing, arranging transportation via social networking, we are seeing ideas about small city cars available for hire like city bicycles, etc. Car ownership is no longer self-understood in many progressive cities, including Ljubljana. This is affecting the role of the arterial roads, as well. New answers are needed, new concepts for their transformation in terms of sensible urban purpose and traffic use.

One such answer is (an even more intensive) internationalisation of Ljubljana as regards economy and demographics, tourism, business, and architecture. Another answer is seemingly in contradiction to the first one: going against and mitigating the consequences of the growing global society (i. e. the liberated location), which is dictated by the media and founded on consumerism. The specificity of the location is again recognised as a source of experience and meaning which is authentic and carries potential.

The third - and final, as far as this text is concerned - answer takes into account the technological and social revolution which we are all living, and establishes a positive vision of society and space. As we look into this particular future, Jeremy Rifkin and his bestselling The Zero Marginal Cost Society can provide us a bit of guidance with his vision of the future development of the world (primarily Western, developed world) where the internet of things will usher in an age of almost free goods and services, giving rise to a global culture of sharing and joint use, and causing capitalism to be eventually eclipsed as the inevitable social order. Space will carry on after capitalism has been superseded. How and where we'll live will be important. Most of us live and will continue to live in cities. Cities are and will continue to be the cultural infrastructure which generates change and is the basis for present-day post-industrial, digitised, connected society of knowledge. In the case of arterial roads, it's all about the systematic re-instatement of the urban character to the spaces occupied by arterial roads through urban design and architecture, programmes, pedestrian regulations, and, naturally, integrated new technologies and concepts.

On the one hand, then, arterial roads need operations which will follow Plečnik's and Ravnikar's concepts adapted for our modern times. This means that they will receive more architecture, they must be given urban space, rhythm, depth, diversity, and content. On the other hand, positive change may be achieved by turning around negative trends, overcoming the current dependence on traffic, suburbanisation. This, however, is not possible without both new information technologies and new social action.

The arterial road as an urbanistic concept is an example of an urbanistic task when the space itself is the "client", when the suggested solutions derive from the space itself, its needs and visions, and not from the interests of an individual investor. This is why public, not private urbanism is required. This is why Ljubljana's city administration, together with architects and urbanists, must find enough courage and energy to upgrade the six roads' present-day image with a bold vision and ambition of urban connectedness, freshness, of ideas that at first glance seem no less than revolutionary.

The design of arterial roads as public spaces is a piece of the puzzle, a part of the wider composition of a city. Relevant ideas are those which will recognise the city as the starting point for new urban forms. The purpose of tackling the problem of arterial roads is in asking the questions, thinking about them and finding answers to questions which were left unsolved from previous periods, and in designing innovative solutions. When we have found the answer to what the future of arterial roads should be, we will at the same time also outline the future of the city.

References

1. The leader is a result of an e-mail correspondence.
2. Kevin A. Lynch, The Image of the City.
3. The cities of today are located in a kind of hyperterritory where the IT connections hold the same weight as built networks (traffic and utility infrastructure) and the landscape. Even though telecommunications infrastructure in urban places increasingly consists of elements invisible to the individual (underground cables, wireless networks), it has become as important as transport, water supply, or electric infrastructure.