RECOMMENDATION LETTER - 1, 2, 3
RECOMMENDATION - 1
To whom it may concern
External opinion on Meta Kutin’s professional work
I met Meta Kutin as a doctorate student interested in intergenerational community co-habitation and as an architect involved in voluntary editing and co-authoring the on-line publication TRAJEKT meant for raising awareness of the general audience in architecture and urbanism.
On behalf of Slovenian Third Age University of which I was the President and as a university professor specialized in older adult education I invited her to join Slovenian Third Age University and start developing a participative educational programme Squares, streets and buildings around us for learners 65+. This became a breakthrough in her innovative professional career. Not only has she become an awarded architect in the field of mature architecture characterised by simplicity, predictability, connection with nature and social environment. In parallel she has developed a new field of interest in older people’s meaningful places, their environmental urban needs and aspirations to be analysed through participative »architecture and urbanism« and embodied in architectural projects for them. She has joined different disciplines in a new entity: architecture, older adult education and recently environmental gerontology. She has been studying and applying her findings in the field of what she calls urban gerontology dealing mostly with quality ageing in place depending on older people’s urbanity. Her priority are social and cultural model of ageing, supplementing the medical model of frail ageing mostly applied by architects (safety and comfort). She is currently involved in the international project Dreamlike Neighbourhood about age friendly environment. She is curating the major annual exhibition and event of the Slovenian Society of architects titled: City 65+. Ageing between retreat and urbanity. She is also authoring a »research film« based on a guided survey of older people's opinion concerning city living in old age. Over the last ten years she has been active in raising awareness of the need for older people to be educated in the field of architecture and urbanism developing architectural thinking and the need for their active involvement in shaping their neighbourhood. She has been writing articles and participating in national radio programmes.
Dr. Dušana Findeisen
Head of the Educational Research and Development Institute
Slovenian Third Age University
dusana.findeisen@guest.arnes.si
RECOMMENDATION - 2
To whom it may concern
Subject: Reference letter for Meta Kutin
Architect Meta Kutin has worked for several years in the field of architectural planning, training and
architecture quality promotion. Her project design and andragogical work in the field of architecture for adults
is significant and in many ways pioneering, as it extends architectural knowledge and reflection onto the so far
unjustly neglected field of architecture for adults and old age-related urbanism. Instead of a medical model of
ageing Meta Kutin introduces a model of ageing in social and cultural context. Through her work and articles
published in public media she raises awareness of general public and professionals about urban planning for
adults, thus improving and refining general residential culture.
In 2014 Meta Kutin, jointly with co-author Tomaž Ebenšpanger, prepared the exhibition of Franc Novak:
Architecture for a future man which resulted from their many years' research of artistic work of this Slovenian
modernist architect. The resonating exhibition was also travelling on tours presented at several venues in
Slovenia in the years 2015 and 2016, and raised issues related to general residential culture in the period of
Modernism.
Thereafter she has been connected with the DESSA Gallery also as mentor of architectural programme at the
Slovenian Third Age University (U3A). For her elderly students she prepares guided exhibition tours and
delivers lectures on architecture. She transfers her architectural knowledge for adults to architectural practice
when planning and creating buildings and interiors for older clients.
Meta Kutin designs in a small scale, yet with a great sense of detail development and with regard for the needs
of her clients. Her architecture is retained and with an ear for the user. As she outlines herself, this implies
»silent architecture« which requires architect's full attention and care to be able to recognize the value of
architecture proportions, materials and details. Through silent architecture, Meta Kutin breaks stereotypes
about age and ageing. In her projects she fully understands specifics of the old age situation in Slovenia. She
takes into consideration results of minor surveys carried out jointly with her students at the Slovenian Third
Age University. She points out that understanding of architecture for adults does not imply only building
construction free of barriers but also includes wishes and feelings of older people and their further progress.
Distinctive features of her ideas and designwork are already reflected also in the space.
In January 2019, the curators of the DESSA Gallery, together with the international selector, architect Bernard
Bader, opened the outstanding selected exhibition Slovenian Alpine Architecture 2008–2018 which has been
on tour in Slovenian and foreign galleries since April 2019. The exhibition included also The House in a
Slovenian alpine village built according to the project design by Meta Kutin and Tomaž Ebenšpanger. The same
project was selected for the international exhibition Women Architects Create Future, organized by the
Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning of Slovenia (ZAPS), BAIK and ZT, which was afterwards on tour
also in Klagenfurt, Austrian Radgona, and in Vienna.
The House in a Slovenian alpine village has brought into the traditional rural environment the idea of a modern
dwelling closely connected with the parts of house exterior / garden, then modern interpretation of traditional
details of surrounding local buildings, and reflection about disposition of functions inside the house suitable for
the recently retired native client.
In 2021, Meta Kutin (together with Tomaž Ebenšpanger) received the Golden Pencil Award conferred by ZAPS
for greatest achievements of its members in the field of architecture, landscape architecture and spatial
planning, for a wooden prefabricated house named The House for Modest Residence, owned by a retired
couple. The design project is distinguished for its simple outward view at the most valuable part of landscape,
for aesthetically transformed already existing outdoor fireplace, uninterrupted indoor / outdoor
communication, harmonized use of simple and durable natural materials, and for cleared and surveyable
surfaces of all rooms which enable growing older in home ('ageing in place').
Meta Kutin has recently completed also a studio apartment renovation in the Ljubljana iconic palace Nebotičnik
(Skyscraper). She took consideration of a number of matter-of-factness features and limitations, such as the
existing bathroom block and some furniture pieces which the client wanted to keep. In this distinctly
multifunctional apartment which, though on a small surface, enables teleworking, she duly considered also the
state of health progress of the client who is 72 years old. With its cleared and minimalist design concept the
space remains open and bright. In addition, such aesthetics breaks old age-related stereotypes in the Slovenian
space.
Meta Kutin develops architecture by interfering in boundary areas of reference professions (social gerontology,
geragogics etc.), at the same time developing forms of old people participation in space creation. Of late years,
she has profiled herself as connoisseur of old age-related issues (in particular of old people potentials) and of
old people space architecture. She examines these issues also as doctoral student of postgraduate studies at
the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, in the Architects' Society of Ljubljana, and elsewhere.
Yours sincerely,
Maja Ivanič, u.d.i.a., DESSA Gallery director
RECOMMENDATION - 3
A brief reflection about creating architecture of architect Meta Kutin
To whom it may concern,
I have come upon the architecture work of Meta Kutin most intensely as member of the national committee for The Golden Pencil Award conferred each year by the Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning of Slovenia for outstanding achievements in the field of architecture, when we visited and evaluated The House for Modest Residence above Litija. Prior to that, I got acquainted with some of her other realisations, during study trips in live, through literature and web media, among which The House in a Slovenian alpine village and a Studio apartment renovation in Nebotičnik building. I am outlining the referenced three projects hereunder.
We may sincerely define the architecture of Meta Kutin (which is often created in co-authorship with Tomaž Ebenšpanger) as thoroughly well considered and cleared of any surplus element, which in the context of Slovenian architecture may flirt also with the style of minimalist architecture. It is not just a matter of shaping buildings and building materials, it is also the choice of materials and close attention to details, interior design … As explained by architect herself: »I'm clearing the spaces for so long that there remain bare essentials to create a simple and uncluttered space … I like to describe my architecture as silent«. (Granda, N.: Interview with Meta Kutin: Need for beauty strengthens with age; 23 September 2021; www.outsider.si). It is the matter of searching for essential, basic, real. Whereas a retained and cleared image is only an outward expression of much deeper endeavours, both in relation to users (clients) of her architecture and in relation to environment in which she ponders over architecture and builds her projects, landscape, urban and rural, cultural and social context…. Searching in this way, her architecture becomes distinctively complex.
Thus, The House for Modest Residence above Litija is conceived as a three houses ensemble of almost archetype buildings, where on the edge of settlement indoor and outdoor spaces inseparably communicate with existing trees and lawn and with an attractive view of the valley. The house designed for a retired couple with plenty of hobbies, is actually a homestead associating eternal wisdoms of folk architecture and ideals of modern dwelling connected with exterior.
The House in a Slovenian alpine village is a small residential building in Stara Fužina in Bohinj, designed for a retired woman who will live in the house alone, at times visited by son. The compact house is conceived with double pitched roof and blends in well with the traditional rural building environment. The indoor scheme of residence, on the other hand, is designed with a number of resolute strokes, which make it extremely fit for use and rational while also offer a highest comfort and well-being experience, owing to the development of height–volume and opening outward via panoramic windows. As in the case of the house in Litija, here, too, modern and innovative design of building elements and details, which are at the same time irreplaceably regional, is extremely convincing.
The studio apartment in Ljubljana Nebotičnik is renovation of former apartment for a retired lady professor who lives alone and spends much of her time actively engaged in intellectual work. The referenced renovation exceeds usual idea about residence for senior citizens. It creates an individualized shelter between books for a woman of intellect who still beams with need to do research work. Everything utilitarian is comfortably at hand but put in order because cleared away in the service core. One can only see things which matter, give joy and keep significance over the years.
We have to highlight the created work by architect Meta Kutin also from the specific viewpoint of architecture designed for the elderly. Likewise kindergarten and school architecture, namely institutional architecture for the young, also architecture for the elderly, from the view of regulatory framework and, unfortunately, too often also from the view of project design solutions, is dominated by the principles of safety, comfort, health and hygiene, and surveillance. But the real purpose of architecture for these two social groups is to create spaces constituting challenge and complex polygon to develop capacities in order to become (concerning the youngest) or respectively remain (concerning the elderly) active members of society. If the didactic role of space is important in the design of architecture for the youngest, the design of architecture for the elderly has to find expression in individualized response to entirely developed personal characters, different lifestyles and vision of the world. Meta Kutin's projects are particularly successful in this regard. They are not merely convincing architecture designs (easily recognized also by external observers) but are individualized project responses to specific persons and circumstances. They are responses developed through dialogue and bilateral creative exchange of views and suggestions between architect and user.
It is true, Meta Kutin creates excellent architecture for the elderly. But it is, perhaps, even more true that she creates architecture worthy of the Man.
Mitja Zorc
Assistant Professor
University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Architecture
mitja.zorc@fa.uni-lj.si
Ljubljana, 28. September 2021