The designers at Ofis Arhitekti have completed a project in Ljubljana, Slovenia for the Mercator chain of supermarkets.  To fulfill the project requirements, Ofis Arhitekti came up with a creative solution to a budget problem.

The building is located in a historical area and makes use of the existing front façade of an old building, but the other three sides were only plain concrete walls. They needed to cover these three sides with something more appealing than plain concrete walls, but they only had a budget for enough material to cover one side. Metal sheets painted in bronze were the material which could fit into the budget for the facade, and after a cost evaluation, the budget would only allow for 20% of the concrete shell to be covered with the metal sheets, so the sheets were perforated with holes in different sizes, and the metal circles which were cut out from the sheets were arranged on the rest of the façade surface. The rest of the budget was used for the metal chains that connect the dots. Green climbing plants were then planted at the base of the building, and in time will grow up the chains and fill in the rest of the façade.

Visit the website of Ofis Arhitekti – here.

Photos by – Tomaz Gregoric