Fade-to-black: Enota turns a Dominican monastery into a cultural centre in Slovenia.
The architecture studio Enota has just finished renovating this cultural centre in Ptuj, a city situated in North-East Slovenia. The most unusual aspect is that it's situated in an 800-year old Dominican monastery. The project won a competition in 2003 and stands out for harmoniously combining the architectural and artistic elements accumulated over the building's long history, complimented with a contemporary feel by Enota.
In the main nave white dominates in the old architecture whilst black has been chosen for the seatings and new stage. This division of colours and styles complement each other perfectly and helps to distinguish between the old and added. Enota has employed the same principle elsewhere in the building.
The use of these two colours references the famous black and white habit of the Dominican Order, where the white is symbolic of innocence and black of modesty.
The access to the rows of seats is through an impressive staircase, also in black. This sharp staircase reveals the intricacies of the elevation of the row of seats, as well as allows to see vestiges from across the ages (medieval, gothic, baroque) and those of the monastery’s old functions.
After the monastery ceased functioning at the end of the 18th century, it was used as a barracks, hospital, museum and public housing before finally being converted into a cultural centre. Hence, the building’s interior walls had been quite altered over the last decades in order to accommodate all these different uses, whose remains have been left exposed as well.
It’s not only the main nave that serves as a stage for meetings, conferences, concerts and the like, but also other adjacent spaces have been treated in order to host smaller events.
