page_title: Rog (factory)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rog (factory) / History
caption_attribution_description: Rog Senior
context_page_description: The Rog factory is a squat in Ljubljana, Slovenia, occupied and open since 2006. Before that it was an abandoned building near the center of Ljubljana for 15 years, after the bike-manufacturing Rog company abandoned the building due to high logistics expenses. The building is historically best known as the factory where Rog bikes were manufactured between 1953 and 1991.
  Today, the former Rog factory serves Ljubljana and the wider community as a space for alternative content which is lacking in an otherwise heavily institutionalized Slovenia. Its 7,000 square meters hosts many collectives and spaces: multiple gallery spaces, art studios, two skateparks, Rog Social Center for disadvantaged groups, various concert and clubbing venues, a bicycle repair shop, etc. Those collectives provide a rich program of social and cultural activities. All users participate directly and make decisions collectively at general assemblies.
  The legal status of the use of factory spaces has been contentious from the very beginning and escalated on June 6, 2016, when construction workers entered the spaces to begin the demolition process on the order of the mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković.
context_section_description: The history of the premises of the Rog factory on Trubar Street (Trubarjeva cesta) up until its occupation.
  1871 The land is bought by Ivan Janesh, who builds a small ground-floor building to use for tanning hides.
  1879 Janesh builds a one-story tanning workshop on the location of the previous building.
  1884 His sons add a second story.
  1900 The tannery is bought by Karel Pollak, who renovates and modernizes the workshop.
  1904 Pollak encloses the area with a wall and builds a residential villa.
  1918-19 Pollak builds an expansion to the manufacturing premises.
  1922 Two stories are added by Pollak onto the manufacturing building, with the skeletal construction using the Hennebique system, which is rare in building construction previous to World War I. First such building in Ljubljana. The Czech architect Alois Kral also consults with Plečnik. The factory carries out business successfully.
  1937 Pollak goes bankrupt.
  1938 The factory is bought by Mergenthaller, the owner of a tannery in Vrhnika.
  1945 The expropriation and nationalization of the Indus leather factory.
  1951–53 Remodeling of the factory and the start of the production of Rog bicycles.
  1991 Due to large logistic expenses the management of the Rog factory decides to abandon production on Trubar Street and combine all manufacturing activities in the industrial zone on Airport Street (Letališka cesta).
  1992 The process of re-zoning of the space is triggered, anticipating industrial production. It has a sound professional basis and includes a proposal aimed at protecting the manufacturing building by the Ljubljanica River.
  1994 City of Ljubljana (Department of Urbanism) carries out a construction test by tender. The process of denationalization begins. The production of bicycles at this location is abandoned.
  1995 The international Euroculture conference, Rehabilitation of Urban Areas, the evaluation of architectural heritage is organized by the City of Ljubljana. The Rog factory is dealt with as a sample model. The participants of the workshop suggest that the old factory should be protected and put in use for public programs (studios, ballet school, craft workshops, library, etc.).
  1997 Presentation of the Rog factory at the international meeting Water and Industrial Heritage in Venice.
  1998 The city council approves the site terms PUP CI 5/6 Rog, under which the old Rog factory is protected. The area is also intended for public programs.
  2000 The research project regarding cultural sites within the city (by Peace Institute for the City of Ljubljana): the Rog factory is proposed for visual arts, dance, music, theater. Break 21, 4th International Festival of Young Artists (May) and 17th Biennial of Industrial Design (October) are held in the premises of the factory.
  2001 The Rog factory on Trubar Street is bought by the LB-Hypo bank. The denationalizing process is over. Within the framework of the urban survey for the preparation of a new spatial plan for the City of Ljubljana, Borut Burger uses the Rog factory as an example of a decrepit part of the city center, and proposes that MOL spearhead an initiative for revitalizing this area.
  2002 The City of Ljubljana purchases the Rog factory on Trubar Street (a leasing contract with LB Hypo). Discussion of renovation dies down in 2003.
caption: Senior bicycle
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