Special Mention by the LILA 2025 Jury
Krater includes no landscape architects and follows no formal landscape architecture plan. Yet it is an intervention in landscape that stands as a provocative inquiry into the status of abandoned plots embedded within the urban fabric. The project poses fundamental questions: is a site truly ‘neglected’ if a thriving biotope has already taken hold? Could such a space, in its self-organized vitality, already constitute a form of an urban park? How to organize the social dimension? Krater unfolds as an expedition into landscape itself—an open-ended investigation in which fragmented architectural elements function as instruments of observation, experiment, and reflection. The site operates as a living laboratory, challenging conventional practices of open space production and the disciplinary boundaries of landscape architecture. It addresses relevant uncertainties the Anthropocene entails, engaging critically with issues of multi-species coexistence and the contested notion of environmental harmonization.
At a time when landscape architecture often seeks to simulate nature through aesthetic approximation or even mimicry, Krater seems oblivious to such representational impulses. Its proposition is radical in its restraint: rather than imposing form, it frames this ‘third landscape’ as a space of ecological processes, social encounter and experiment, revealing alternative logics of co-inhabitation, agency and design—logics that may become increasingly relevant as landscape architecture confronts its own ecological, ethical and epistemological limits.
– from the award statements
See all LILA recognitions or visit LILA websiteAt the intersection of Dunajska and Topniška Street lies one of Ljubljana’s oldest abandoned construction sites—a scar left by decades of halted urban planning. Originally cleared in 1994 for a government building that was never realized, the site was left with two vast gravel pits and a legacy of dereliction. In this liminal terrain, between ruin and regeneration, Krater was born.
Krater is a temporary yet transformative architectural and landscape intervention—an experiment in cohabitation, material circularity, and ecological imagination. Developed on 4000 m² of the unused lot through a community agreement with the landowner, the project reclaims this long-inaccessible site for public use. It is a living infrastructure of transdisciplinary collaboration among architects, biologists, designers, and artists, who together reframe this “wasteland” as a testing ground for more connected, climate-conscious urban futures.
The space has been partially rehabilitated with mobile architectural elements—modular, movable, and made entirely from previously used, repurposed materials. Prior to any physical intervention, a detailed analysis of the existing ecosystem was carried out, identifying spontaneous vegetation, soil conditions, and microhabitats that had developed during decades of abandonment. This ecological mapping informed the placement and orientation of all spatial elements, ensuring minimal disturbance to the site’s natural regeneration processes. Every component introduced to the space—from the floors of discarded wood, to composting toilets upcycled from old telephone booths, to the workshop structures—had a previous life. Even the glass surfaces used throughout the site are reclaimed, bearing traces of their former functions. Almost no new materials were introduced. This commitment to radical reuse challenges conventional hierarchies of permanence and form, embracing an architectural language of impermanence, responsiveness, and care. The result is a living, evolving space—architecture in flux—shaped not just by human intention, but by the ecological intelligence of the site itself.
Krater hosts three core production labs: a papermaking station, a wood workshop, and a myco-design lab. These open-access hubs are embedded within the local ecosystem, engaging with the site’s colonizing species—pioneering, feral plants that have stabilized the damaged soil and created new microhabitats. Taking inspiration from these resilient ecologies, Krater fosters new forms of human-nature kinship through material experimentation, public education, and cultural production.
What distinguishes Krater is its approach to landscape—not as a backdrop or passive container, but as a co-creator in a continuous process of place-making. The design resists the idea of a finished product, favoring instead a curatorial, responsive mode of stewardship. The landscape is not “restored” to a prior state, but reimagined in a process of mutual adaptation—where waste becomes resource, weeds become allies, and temporary use becomes an act of future-making.
Krater shows that so-called degraded urban ecosystems hold tremendous potential—for biodiversity, microclimate resilience, and social cohesion. Its landscape design is not only aesthetic but pedagogical. It is a place where citizens can learn skills of self-sufficiency, circular thinking, ecological stewardship, and collaborative governance. Through workshops, installations, and open gatherings, Krater becomes a porous commons—an interface between knowledge and soil, between civic engagement and ecological restoration.
As cities face the twin crises of climate change and social fragmentation, Krater offers a replicable model: an adaptable, low-impact, community-driven landscape that challenges normative development paths. It invites us to see urban voids not as failures, but as fertile grounds for reinvention.
Project Data
All landscape architecture studios collaborating in the project:
Krater Collective
(Andrej Koruza, Gaja Mežnarić Osole, Danica Sretenović, Amadeja Smrekar, Maša Cvetko, Anamari Hrup, Eva Jera Hanžek)
All architecture offices collaborating in the project:
Urban Design Studio Prostorož, Trajna Association, Slovenian Association for Permaculture, Sanctuary for Abandoned Plants, Mainly Afternoon, PiNA Association
• Other collaborators and credits:
Krater’s pioneering ecosystem together with numerous volunteers and project collaborators: Primož Turnšek, Sebastjan Kovač, Altan Jurca Avci, Rok Oblak, Debra Solomon, Zala Velkavrh, Borut Jerman, John Buscarino, Elie Seksig, Karl Kaisel, Danny Shaw, Edern Haushofer, Renata Širfrar, Daša Bezjak, Darko Petan, Juan José López Díez, Monika Tominšek, Lena Penšek, Ana Bajt, Marko Čeh, Mitja Žagar, Aja Golob, Zala Metlika, Tatjana Kotnik, Jana Vukšić, Filipa Valenčić, Iskra Vukšić, Lotte van der Woude, Zuzana Jančovičová, Justyna Chmielewska, Jane Pirone, Barbara Adams, Hala Abdel Malak, Zsuzsanna Szegedi, Jana Stankić, Zoltan Puzsár, Benedek Lits, Angelo Renna, Katherine Boles, Xavier Acarin, Ola Korbańska, Iwo Borkowicz, Lara Jana Gabriel, Lidija Pranjić, Ajda Biček, Sieta van Horck, Andreja Benedejčič, Rens Spanjaard, Tina Božak, Neža Novak , Cristián Roman, Nina Rojc, Gorazd Kurent, Marko Turkuš, Karlo Hmeljak, Aleksandra Kansky, Gregor Klemenc, Taja Gorjan, Nina Dolar, Tina Pernuš, Nina Vidič, Klemen Košir, Oriol Gracia Vallès, Petra Žumer Štrigl, Lara Jana Gabrijel Milanovič, Nina Dolar, Bojan Trstenjak Makar, Vladimir Borštnik, Damjan Kostič, Anna Kotova, Ljubljana Fire Brigade, Youth for Climate Justice and the Ministry of Justice RS …
Photos by Amadeja Smrekar, Maj Juvanec
