Tržič, Slovenia
June 30th - July 14th, 2024
Tržič is a pleasant old alpine town, famous for its tradition of
craftsmanship. The town itself has 3.811 residents, while the
population of the whole Municipality of Tržič is 15.058. There have
been busy trade routes in the area since the time of ancient Rome
and they have helped the residents to develop outstanding and
ambitious artisanal workshops – they were tanners, ironworks,
shoemakers, wheelwrights, clothmakers, and especially shoemakers.
Today, the old town of Tržič is protected as a cultural monument.
Positioned in north Slovenia, Tržič is nestled beneath the slopes of
the Karavanke mountain range on the Austrian border, and opens
towards the Ljubljana Basin to the south. Ljubljana, the Capital of
Slovenia is 50 km away and the national airport 28 km.2
The urban area consists of the old town centre of Tržič, situated at
the confluence of Mošenik and Tržiška Bistrica rivers, and the newer
suburban settlement of Bistrica pri Tržiču. In between, there is
extensive industrial area of former shoe (Peko) and textile (BPT)
factories, currently only partially functional. The decline of
industries in 1990s significantly marked the socio-economics of
town, resulting in redundancy.
Over the last two decades the town is steadily re-covering by small
entrepreneurship, services and tourism however still twice as many
people commute to work to Kranj and Ljubljana than work within
municipality. This contributes to Tržič shifting from being a
historically employment-intensive center to becoming more of a
residential environment. In the last years a trend of an upward
migration is observed, including economic migrants of Albanian,
Bosnian, Serbian origin settling in the old historic centre.
The fact is, that the area of Tržič possesses a high potential in
terms of its natural environment, alpine mountain landscape, and
cultural ambiance, making it ideal for living, tourism, recreation,
and other sustainable economic activities. Residents in survey
(2021) have expressed a high level of satisfaction with the quality
of the natural environment and recreational opportunities. A
significant part of the municipality is covered with forests, of
which almost 80% falls within Natura 2000 areas due to its
exceptional biodiversity. The number of overnight stays by tourists
grows steadily, demonstrating the attractiveness of the area,
particularly in hiking, mountain biking, and other outdoor
activities.
The municipality has got 13 local communities spread across three
alpine valleys and the lowlands, but has nevertheless remained a
unified entity and has strengthened its network of local public
institutions, providing citizens with affordable and timely access
to all essential life services (kindergartens, primary schools,
healthcare, social services, pharmacy, elderly care, library,
museum, adult education, cultural and sports infrastructure,
municipal and regulatory services).
A variety of social leisure activities are available to children,
youth, and seniors in both institutional and civil forms. Tržič
residents can participate in 124 associations that operate in the
fields of sports and culture, firefighting, mountaineering,
humanitarian, and other activities. 73% of respondents are satisfied
with the quality of life and the quality of public services. The
municipality's development efforts are reflected in the Golden Stone
award, which places the Municipality of Tržič among the most dynamic
Slovenian municipalities according to the ISSO index.
WHY REVIVE IN TRŽIČ OLD TOWN?
Thus, REVIVE is an important development initiative placed in the
historic town of Tržič which is currently facing the serious
challenges:3
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Decline of economic activity in the town, shops, services and bars closing down
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Lack of new and quality housing and living spaces in
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Multicultural community
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Traffic issues (lack of parking space, transit location)
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Losing the former historic image and ambiance
The town administration is preparing several regeneration projects
making the main public spaces more attractive however this solely
cannot revive the soul and spirit of the town. In this respect the
REVIVE experiment is seen as an important initiative that is
expected to add freshness to the existing structures, uncover
perspectives, engage residents for joint action and help accelerate
the process of regeneration of the old town Tržič.
GARDEN CHALLENGES FOR THE REVIVE TEAM OF YOUNG TALENTS
The REVIVE experiment deals with one of the open green public spaces
in the northern part of the old town, in need for revitalisation and
citizens engagement - garden of Tržič museum. Until last october the
garden was overgrown with bushes and other vegetation, than cleaned
up and is ready for new use.
The aim of the REVIVE experiment in Tržič is through co-creative
process prepare and partly experimentally implement a proposal for
revitalisation of these new surrounding open space of the Tržič
Museum, i.e., the museum garden, which will complement the exterior
of the museum (Pollak Mannor) and functionally enable the area for
conducting museum and community activities. The new green area will
be part of Tržič's cultural and tourist infrastructure, offering
opportunities for the development of social, cultural, tourist, and
educational activities and interactions of/for the residents and
visitors.
Tržič Museum, as a manager of the site, constantly explores new ways
to incorporate it's unique and diverse collection into wider
community and educational institutions. The innovative initiative of
the REVIVE project brings further ambitions to offer an even deeper
engagement with history and heritage and is poised to transform the
museum garden into a vibrant hub where history, heritage, art, and
nature harmoniously converge.
Based on the current state and heritage associated with the Tržič
Museum, Pollak cottage and the surrounding area, and in line with
the needs of local residents and visitors to the area, it is
necessary to redesign and shape the current space in a way that
ensures the preservation of the area and its sustainable
development, but at the same time enhance new the opportunities for
the museum development and the interaction of citizens.
The experiment of the revival of the Museum garden has 5 main
challenges:
1. Comprehensive garden design (incl. long-term vision)
2. Social role of the garden (inc. engagement of the neighbourhood
and citizens)
3. Garden fence
4. Small garden house
5. The Sun house
PAST AND NEW USE OF THE GARDEN
In the past, the already revitalised areas of the museum garden were
used for various purposes of the Tržič Musuem:
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Music evenings
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Workshops for children
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(kindergarten and elementary
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school)
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Traditional games
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Meetings
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Medieval days
Before cleaning the area some southern parts of the garden were leased out to residents for vegetable and herb gardening.
Museum garden before cleaning, summer 2023, Google Maps
There were numerous ideas and attempts to revitalise the garden and
use it in it's full potential. For various reasons those ideas never
came to life. After October, when the garden was cleaned and the
fences of the vegetable garden were removed - it is a high time the
ideas start to flow in and for the creative and hard work to begin.
It is however important to learn from the past experiences.
FACTS TO BE CONSIDERED
In visioning the new space the REVIVE project will need to overcome
the following facts and threats:
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Informal gatherings in the garden lead to littering and safety
issues
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The unstable condition of the soil after cleaning the area lastautumn (note: the grass will be sowed in spring 2024)
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Coordinating the activities in the garden (experiences with galleries)
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Conflict of interests in the community (they are looking for
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more parking spaces and are reluctant to use the garden as a green public space
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Asking locals how they want to use the space led to serious conflicts
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Limited budget and personnel capacities (maintenance)
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Fencing off the garden: the balance between protection and Invitation
Selected young talents will use their creativity throughout the REVIVE project and Tržič live experiment and try to address all these challenges with the purpose of finding the most effective solution for revitalisation of the garden.