Stožice Training Pavilion / Sadar+Vuga

Architects: Sadar+Vuga d.o.o.
Area: 150 m²
Year: 2025
Photography: Ana Skobe
Architect Team: Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Miha Čebulj, Jan Opeka, Mirjam Milić, Petko Grabljić
Landscape Architecture: Studio AKKA (Ana Kučan Krajinska Arhitektura d.o.o.)
Structural Engineering: Project PA d.o.o.
Client: The City of Ljubljana
City: Ljubljana
Country: Slovenia

The Stožice Training Pavilion by Sadar+Vuga is the first completed element of the emerging Stožice Sports Park in Ljubljana. Designed as a compact but expressive facility, it provides essential support spaces for football training, including changing rooms, showers, a space for coaches and referees, and a club room. Its form, composed of two concrete planes framing a timber core, evokes the sensation of earth splitting to reveal a hidden structure. The project unites functional clarity with sculptural presence while maintaining a strong environmental ethos through natural light, ventilation, and robust, low-maintenance materials. Beyond serving athletes, the pavilion contributes to the public realm, acting as a social node that bridges sport and community within the developing park landscape.

The Stožice Training Pavilion introduces a new architectural vocabulary to the evolving Stožice Sports Complex, articulating how modest structures can carry civic meaning. Commissioned by the City of Ljubljana, it operates as both a functional building and a conceptual marker, establishing the tone for future park pavilions. Its placement beside the auxiliary football fields reinforces its immediate role as a training base while symbolizing the larger ambition to merge sports facilities with public space.

At just 150 square meters, the pavilion achieves remarkable efficiency. It accommodates the complete program of essential spaces—changing rooms, showers, and social areas—organized to ensure smooth circulation and privacy for all users. Distinct zones for referees and coaches support the rhythm of training activities and affirm the building’s purpose as an adaptable, community-focused infrastructure. Every function is distilled to its core, resulting in a plan that is direct, legible, and conducive to daily use.

The architectural concept stems from the idea of geological movement. Two robust concrete planes appear to have been forced apart by an underground pressure, revealing a timber core caught between them. This metaphorical rupture shapes both the building’s structure and its identity. It conveys a sense of emergence, as though the pavilion were drawn out of the ground rather than placed upon it. The gesture captures the balance between force and precision that defines the project’s aesthetic.

Externally, the building’s ventilated façade of laminated panels forms a subtle visual rhythm. The panels, arranged in a consistent grid, respond dynamically to shifting perspectives: lines align and break as one moves around the structure, generating a kinetic visual experience. This interplay of rhythm and disruption mirrors the surrounding energy of movement and sport, grounding the pavilion within its athletic context while maintaining a quiet, composed presence.

The interior contrasts with the solidity of its exterior. Warm timber surfaces and soft natural light create an atmosphere of calm retreat for athletes before and after training. Roof openings punctuate the ceiling to introduce daylight and promote natural ventilation, minimizing reliance on artificial systems. Through these simple yet deliberate environmental strategies, the pavilion achieves energy efficiency and comfort without technological complexity.

The landscape surrounding the pavilion extends its social reach. New benches and modest planting transform the adjacent grounds into an active public edge where spectators, families, and passers-by can pause and observe. What was once an undefined field now functions as a micro public space, supporting informal gatherings and extending the building’s role beyond its physical footprint. The pavilion, though small, becomes an initiator of social life within the sports park.

In its material honesty and measured form, the Stožice Training Pavilion achieves a fine balance between utility and expression. Its small scale belies its conceptual weight, offering a thoughtful example of how infrastructure can enrich civic identity. Through its layered composition of concrete, timber, and light, it introduces both continuity and change to the Stožice Sports Complex, setting a design language for what is yet to come.

The project stands as an architectural statement about precision, durability, and the integration of sport with everyday urban experience. By merging pragmatic function with sculptural presence, Sadar+Vuga have crafted a building that transcends its immediate use. The Stožice Training Pavilion embodies the values of contemporary Slovenian architecture—clarity, restraint, and engagement with place—while signaling a confident direction for the evolution of Ljubljana’s public landscape.