The master’s thesis Ljubljana, retroactively examines the area of the main railway corridor in Ljubljana, which for over a century has been one of the central challenges of urban planning in Ljubljana, as it acts as a distinct spatial and functional divide between the northern and southern parts of the city. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the idea of railway undergrounding has periodically resurfaced, yet it has never progressed beyond the stage of conceptual studies; at the same time, its constant presence in professional circles and among the general public has acted as a hindrance to the development of alternative approaches. The issue described serves as a starting point for this thesis, which proposes a radical shift: abandoning the undergrounding paradigm and granting amnesty to the railway infrastructure as the basis for its reinterpretation. The theoretical section analyzes the role of the railway in the broader European, national and regional contexts, explores the history of railway undergrounding projects in Ljubljana, and introduces the concept of amnesty. Particular emphasis is placed on the potential of the urban railway as a vehicle for modern mobility and urbanity, supported by a study of reference cases. Subsequently, the main railway corridor is treated as a potential urban backbone, comparable to the role of the Ljubljanica River in Plečnik’s vision of the city, after which an alternative urban planning framework is developed, based on a sistem of point interventions. The project part of the thesis includes five pilot architectural projects at strategically selected locations along the corridor, which function as spatial instruments of reterritorialization or as a »glue« for the city. On an ideological level, the project promotes a shift from the paradigm of »erasing« the railway to its interpretation; on a practical level, it offers a set of projects for the gradual transformation of the main railway corridor into a new urban backbone for Ljubljana.
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