At the edge of Tivoli, Rožnik and Šišenski Hrib Landscape Park, a degraded entrance to the forest was transformed into a place shaped by what was already present on the site.
Timber from removed oak trees did not become waste. It remained on site and took on new roles — as seating, habitat, a carrier of information and material for a sculptural interpretation of the stag beetle.
Rather than introducing new architecture into the forest, the project uses a small number of carefully considered interventions to shape a space among the existing trees. The natural form of the trunks remains legible, while processing is limited to what is necessary for their new use.
THE TREE AS A STARTING POINT
The removed oaks became the primary material of the new space. The trunks were worked on site and transformed into unique seating elements while retaining their curvature, bark, cross-sections and traces of natural growth.
Rather than completely transforming the material, the intervention reveals its original form. The new emerges through subtraction — only as much as necessary to give the tree a new function.
Information is not added to the space as a separate element. It is integrated directly into the timber: an illustration of the stag beetle’s life cycle is engraved into a metal plate and inserted into the cross-section of a trunk.
TIME RECORDED IN THE TREE
The cross-section of an oak becomes a timeline. The tree rings are connected with selected events from the history of Ljubljana, the park and its immediate surroundings.
Time is therefore not presented on a separate information panel. The tree itself becomes its medium.
STAG BEETLE
The central sculptural object is a 1.7-metre-long stag beetle made from reclaimed oak and old iron.
Timber forms its solid body, while metal creates the legs and characteristic mandibles. Rather than being placed on a pedestal, the object rests on one of the existing trees and becomes part of the landscape.
A SPACE FOR PEOPLE AND OTHER SPECIES
Part of the removed timber remains within the site as habitat for the protected stag beetle. The same material therefore takes on several roles at once: it becomes an element of public space, a carrier of narrative and part of another species’ habitat.
The architectural intervention is therefore not separate from the natural process, but seeks to become part of it.
Project
Spatial intervention in a natural environment
Location
Tivoli, Rožnik and Šišenski Hrib Landscape Park, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Design
Studio Drevo
Client
City of Ljubljana
Photography
Studio Drevo archive, Branko Čeak, Miha Krivic
