The DCB3 building is not just a 40-metres-high office building, but a real catalyst of intentions and uses. It carries the entire set of values of this new city/campus project. It is the center and the signal.

The DCB3 building is thought of as a vertical and horizontal stratification of elements and typologies. The major ensemble of the project is the forum, the theatre, the pavilions and the observatory. Each of these sets is programmed and drawn to express a singularity while defining a unit. The ensemble creates a building - never seen, and never built before.

In the manner of a forum, programs are served and articulated around a centre, a piazza. The ground floor includes large spaces that can accommodate a wider audience: restaurant, conference room and exhibition venue. It is also possible to access large entities directly from outside, independently.

In the centre of the forum, a wooden structure recreates a space reminiscent of the interiors of theatres, with small alcoves located around an atrium. It unfolds on several levels: from the ground floor to the fourth level. This wooden structure animates the forum, brings life and contributes to the creation of the center. This theatre is the lung of the first stratum of the project. It channels the central space. The theatre benefits from the views offered by the large windows located in the floors between each pavilion.

The first stratum of the building consists of four pavilions. On the first part and therefore at the corners of the project, the building does not exceed a 20 metres height, which will keep it at the same level than neighbouring buildings. At the pedestrian scale, the street scale is reduced. In the same way, the shadows of the DCB3 building are then more advantageous for the other buildings on the campus.

Beyond 20 metres high, the project establishes a second logic. The building opens to the outside and offers views of the great Ljubljana landscape. It takes the form of a cross to multiply the directions inside offices. This height in the campus offers a new tower of 40m high in Ljubljana. It can be called the observatory or the villa. It reminds an orientation table. The levels 6 to 10 are served by two elevators and two stairs. Placed in symmetry, they serve ideally office levels. The entire layout allows offices to take full advantage of views of the landscape, direct natural light and optimise the centre of the building by bringing together the servicing spaces. Thanks to this change of shape, the offices of the sixth level open on four terraces, of more than 85m² each, reminding the gardens on the ground floor and the mountains.

The glazed curtain wall façade is completed by a system of vertical skylights that provides natural sun protection. The skylights of 40 centimetres of length by 5 centimetres of width are located every 65 centimetres, following the layout of the joinery of the glass facade.

On the ground floor, the number of skylights decreases. Only one in two is installed compared to the upper floors. With its level, the ground floor is less subject to sun protection issues. With its program, it must be porous. This implantation makes it possible to open the space on the outside as much as possible.

The material used for skylights is copper. It comes in two shades: pink copper and green copper. The choice of colours is a reminder of the landscape of Ljubljana and especially its mountains. Depending on the orientation of the facade, we use the green one or the pink shade. The vertical lines of the facade reinforce the abstraction of the building. It becomes solid, almost monolithic, in contrast to conventional glass buildings.

Client: Dimnikcobau d.o.o. / Surface: 18000 m² / Schedule: 2019 / Team: Franck Boutté (HQE)