Meksika Change this

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Responding to a persistant housing shortage in the years after World War I, tha municipality of Ljubljana built the first residential apartment house for city employers. The building was named Mekiska after gathering place for soldiers who were going to war in Mexico for the Emperor Maximilian and is th efirst example of collective housing in Ljubljana. Vladimir Šubic designed the building following the example of Viennese social housing. It is represented by a building introverted on the inner central courtyard with the 82 housing units of minimal standard. Because the apartments has no bathrooms a public bath and a laundry on the first floor were available for common use.

The building was originally designed with two courtyards which didn’t occur because of the complications with the purchase of land to the construction. The building gives the impression of monolithic and powerful residential palace, but it is also well articulated to the site of the street where is positioned. The central part of the entrance hall and the portal is decorated with the figure of the mother and father of the sculptor Lojze Dolinar. Vaulted ceiling binds which leads to a central courtyard are painted with frescoes by the painter Rihard Jakopič. The composition of the building, along two perpendicular axes, is symmetrical and contains spaces of varying volumes, thus giving the impression of a majestic residential palace.

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