Open House Slovenia, the largest architectural festival in the country, returned from 11 to 13 April 2025 for its sixteenth edition, opening the doors to 75 exceptional architecture projects across Slovenia. This year, the festival placed the continent-wide Open House Europe theme, Future Heritage, at its centre, inviting visitors to reconsider how we understand, value and build heritage for the years ahead.

Through guided tours, conversations and direct encounters with architecture, the festival explored the stories embedded in buildings and spaces, highlighting the balance between preservation and adaptation, respect for local identity and the demands of contemporary life. It raised an essential question for the architectural field and the public alike: which practices of today will become tomorrow’s legacy? By encouraging dialogue between visitors and project authors, Open House Slovenia deepened the shared understanding of architecture’s role in shaping future communities and their cultural memory.

Mladika

Among this year’s programme highlights was Mladika, one of Ljubljana’s most recognisable architectural landmarks designed by Max Fabiani in the early twentieth century. Its recent renovation exemplifies the key qualities of Future Heritage: careful preservation, meaningful adaptation and the revitalisation of historic structures for contemporary use. The project retains the building’s spatial organisation, façade articulation and decorative details, while integrating the modern systems needed for its ongoing life as a government office. This thoughtful transformation shows how high-quality heritage can remain relevant and inspiring, continuing to contribute to the fabric of the city.

Europe Square and the Vrtača Railway Underpass

The tour of Europe Square and the Vrtača Railway Underpass offered a different reflection on Future Heritage. The project redefined a once-divided border area between Slovenia and Italy into a unified public space. Long marked by separation, the site has been transformed through careful design into a symbol of cross-border connection and shared identity. Today it encourages movement, encounter and cooperation, carrying both spatial and symbolic significance. Now also part of the European Capital of Culture 2025 programme, the project demonstrates how heritage is shaped not only by what we preserve, but by what we choose to connect.

Rotovž Centre

The guided tour of the Rotovž Centre in Maribor provided a rare look into a major public project mid-construction. By opening the site before completion, Open House Slovenia invited the public to understand architecture as a layered process shaped by design intent, technical challenges and civic investment. Once complete, the renovated complex will house a new public library, art gallery and community spaces—bringing renewed life to the cultural core of the city. The tour illustrated that Future Heritage begins long before a building opens its doors, in the collective insight and engagement that shape its development.

Beyond the main festival weekend, Open House Slovenia continued to explore the annual theme through additional activities. In May, the curated programme Spaces of the State offered rare access to key public institutions, examining their architectural and civic roles in contemporary society. Also, as part of the centenary of architect Milan Mihelič, Open House Slovenia organised a guided tour of the Slovenijales building, highlighting the relevance of post-war modernism and the importance of thoughtful renovation in keeping architectural heritage alive.

Together, these events broadened the conversation around Future Heritage—showing that heritage is not only what we inherit but also what we actively shape through understanding, use and engagement today.