From Factory to Commons: Reprogramming Rog as Ljubljana’s Cultural Engine

In Ljubljana, the former Rog Factory has been transformed into Center Rog, a new hub for art, design, and innovation. Designed by the Barcelona-based studios Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio, the project rehabilitates one of the city’s most significant industrial landmarks while reopening a previously sealed section of the Ljubljanica River to public life.

Recognized as the most important twentieth-century industrial building in Ljubljana, the factory occupies a unique position: it is the largest industrial structure in the city center and the first large-scale reinforced concrete building, crowned by an Art Nouveau façade. Originally built in the late nineteenth century and remodeled in 1923 with a three-story reinforced concrete frame, the factory later housed the Rog company, whose bicycles and typewriters became icons across the former Yugoslavia.

After the factory ceased operation in the early 1990s, the complex fell into abandonment and was later occupied by squatters. Ljubljana City Council eventually acquired the site and, in 2008, launched an international competition to convert it into a cultural facility focused on artistic production and innovation along the riverfront. Mendoza Partida and BAX Studio won the commission, although the project could only begin in 2022 after a long legal process, with construction completed in late 2023.

The architects approached the existing factory as a singular piece of industrial heritage. Its 125-meter-long façade and rational structural grid, designed by Czech engineer Alois Kral, had already distinguished it as the largest warehouse in the city when completed, and as an early example of the Hennebique reinforced concrete system, with its exposed beam-and-column skeleton.

The main strategy of the project is to preserve and highlight this robust original structure while enabling a new, complex program. To achieve this, the architects added a new, lightweight volume along the north façade, parallel to the main hall. This glazed annex accommodates circulation, technical spaces, and services—stairs, lifts, restrooms, and the main mechanical and air-conditioning ducts—leaving the original nave largely free of obstructions. The historical hall thus retains its spatial clarity and atmosphere, and can support a flexible mix of uses.

The reconfigured factory hosts a broad range of programs: production laboratories, exhibition spaces, a library, workshops open to the public, offices, multipurpose rooms, residential units, and studios. Together, these elements make Center Rog a key cultural infrastructure for local creative industries, bringing together making, learning, and living under one roof.

Given the age and condition of the building, extensive structural reinforcement was necessary. The architects repaired and consolidated the deteriorated vaults and arches, taking into account the seismic risk of the region. The new structure not only houses technical systems but also contributes to the overall stability of the ensemble, acting as a structural brace for the historic shell.

Light and transparency are central to the transformation. The fully glazed north volume frames views of the historic factory and allows daylight to penetrate deep into the interior. At ground level, the project removes the former barriers that separated the building from the river and opens the façade onto the riverside promenade. New commercial spaces and creative workshops activate the edge and connect the building to the adjacent park, turning a once-closed industrial compound into a porous and inviting civic place.

The renovation of Rog is thus more than an architectural restoration; it is a strategic urban intervention. By combining heritage conservation, programmatic intensity, and public accessibility, Center Rog catalyzes the renewal of this stretch of the riverfront and reinforces Ljubljana’s cultural and creative landscape.