ALJAZ BABIC MSc in landscape architecture

This master thesis discusses the possibility of designing a master plan of a new urban park, located on the premises of the former baroque garden in front of the Gruber palace in Ljubljana. The plan would follow the principles of contemporary interpretation of baroque landscape architecture characteristics. The former garden area is today merely a grass surface. Although historical sources reveal the formation of a baroque garden, designed during the construction of the palace, their unreliability prevents us from determining the garden’s actual form. The paper explores the possibilities of planning a new arrangement as a compromise between conservational intervention on the one hand and the planning of a modern city park on the other. Contemporary interpretation is implemented in a way that combines the quintessential baroque forms and structures with a new concept that is based on the dynamic cultural landscape of the Ljubljana Marshes. The new city park is no longer merely a representative open space in front of the baroque palace, but an organ of other functions as well. Its purpose is to display the baroque elements in modern garden design, which is achieved through the transformation of existing baroque garden structures and the addition of new ones. Although the new design of forms exhibits a baroque origin, its purpose is more suited to the requirements of the modern era. Both the physical and the symbolic renovation provide the city with a connective element between the rich baroque architectural cultural heritage and contemporary urban open green spaces.