This Lake Bled boathouse is a light-filled HQ for scientists

This new boathouse, perched on the shores of Lake Bled within the north-west of Slovenia, near the Austrian border, is constructed to a design by Rok Oman and Špela Videčnik’s Ljubljana-based OFIS Architects. Regardless of its home scale and high-quality design, this isn’t the house of a modern speedboat or hand-crafted lake cruiser. The construction was truly commissioned by the Slovenian Setting Company and serves because the HQ and foremost storage facility for the company’s small analysis fleet. From right here, scientists can got down to monitor Lake Bled’s water high quality.

Tour this modern boathouse in Slovenia

Regardless of the modern look, Boathouse Zaka can be categorised as a refurbishment. This wasn’t merely a case of stripping again the timber and giving it a recent coat of paint and even beginning once more from scratch and constructing a reproduction. As a substitute, the architects initiated a painstaking strategy of fastidiously dismantling all the construction, logging every bit and subjecting the wooden to a restore and safety course of utilizing conventional pine resin.

Nonetheless, somewhat than merely return every part again to its unique spot, OFIS took the chance to reshape the alignments and angles of the planks. ‘The picket planks have been rotated and offset at various angles, producing a rhythm of slats that provides a level of transparency, shadow play, and filtered views from inside and with out,’ the architects say.

When illuminated from inside at nightfall, or when the low morning solar shines by the slats, the boathouse is reworked into a light-weight filter. Coupled with the reflections on the floor of the lake, and the normal pitched roof construction turns into a brand new beacon on the shore.

Along with giving the woodwork a brand new lease of life for a lot of a long time, the architectural strategy additionally checked out bettering the inside situations and general efficiency of the construction. A brand new timber ground replaces ageing cement tiles, creating an area that feels much less damp and extra conducive to working, together with the porous nature of the façade.

On the steep pitched roof, the architects later added filtration beds – seen in a few of these images – as a method of exploring alternative ways of filtering water by completely different mixtures of soil, planting and substrates. Though the beds look decorative – particularly when planted with native alpine flowers – the rooftop additions are one other ongoing experiment initiated by the Setting Company, exploring pure methods of cleansing water and bettering the area’s biodiversity.

Lake Bled is a well-liked vacationer vacation spot. On its jap shores lies the alpine resort of Bled – the 52m spire of the church on Bled Island may be seen in a few of these photographs. For hundreds of years, guests have come to the clear waters of this glacial lake, and methods to revive and improve the water high quality are a urgent environmental concern.

‘The venture gives a mannequin for low-impact, high-value structure: one which preserves reminiscence, extends the lifetime of current buildings, and provides new layers of that means by ecology and public engagement,’ say the architects, explaining why the restoration and improve strategy was taken as an alternative of constructing anew.

OFIS.si