The Nova UGM is created as a geological artifact to fold the historical context of the adjacent city core into a rich dialogue with an affirmation of Maribor’s cultural future.

The cultural institution is viewed as an analogous condition to the sedimentary recording of an evolving geological condition. An active surface layer is the transitory condition, a membrane between the temporal and the artifact. Subsurface strata hold the wealth of accumulated cultural resources, from contemporary representations to institutionalized collections, and are made available to the curious for investigation, education and deeper understanding.

This conceptual template allows for the institution to be organized as interconnected strata which support a new overlaid public space and pedestrian route; joining the arterial Koroška road with the river embankment. The museum becomes sculptural greenspace that both encourages a modern ethos of activity and vitality and articulates the historic central city core by positing a cultural landscape where historically a protective moat of green for the city wall surely must have laid fallow.

The resulting landform weaves the public life of the city both in leisure, in education and in exploration of new ideas and artistic expression.

The Nova UGM is navigated via sub-surface exploration from public plazas both at the river embankment and an entry off of Street ‘E’. The depository anchors the building surrounded by public exhibits and supporting program. Galleries form fluid layers above the depository and create an ascending mingled spatial connection to the active park surface capping the museum.