Housing.Yu Team on a Study Trip Through Slovenia

Members of the research team of the ERC project Housing.Yu – „Right to Housing: the Production of Spaces of Everyday Life in Yugoslavia (1945-1991)” visited Slovenia from October 16 to 21, 2025. As part of the study trip, they toured Ljubljana, Kranj, Jesenice, Vipava, Nova Gorica, Koper, Gabrovica, Velenje, Kidričevo, Maribor, and Murska Sobota.

The field visits focused on the planned development of cities and housing estates, smaller groups of residential buildings, and residential interpolations in historic city centers from the 1920s to the 1990s, as well as on individual housing construction. The team visited the housing estates Fužine, Štepanjsko naselje, Sneberje, and Murgle in Ljubljana; Planina pri Kranju in Kranj; Cankarjevo naselje in Nova Gorica; Borova vas, Nova Vas II, TAM Tezno, Pobrežje, Gosposvetska cesta, Jemčev vrt, Vurnik’s Colony, Hutter’s Villa, and a workers’ housing block, all in Maribor.

The team had the exceptional opportunity to visit the standard twin-family house in Sneberje, Ljubljana, and the standard row house, and home of architect in Vurnik’s Colony in Maribor. In Kranj, they visited the Palača občine Kranj building, designed by architect Edvard Ravnikar — a protected cultural monument of national significance — with expert guidance from Nataša Ülen, conservator at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia.

As part of the field visits organized and guided by Martina Malešič, invited lectures were held by art historian Alenka di Battista, conservator at the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Nova Gorica (Vipava, Nova Gorica), and by Mojca Štuhec, senior advisor at the Office for Culture and Youth (Maribor). The tour through Vurnik’s Colony was led by architect Ana Lovrec Medved, doctoral candidate at TU Graz.

The team also visited four exhibitions. At the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, curator and author Martina Malešič provided a guided tour of the exhibitions “Marjan Šorli and Domesticated Architecture” and “Our Beautiful Century – The Ursuline Church and Modernism.” Before visiting Velenje and Murska Sobota, the group toured the permanent exhibitions of the Velenje Museum and the Pomurje Museum Murska Sobota.

Participants in the study trip included Tamara Bjažić Klarin, project leader, and project team members Lidija Butković Mićin, Martina Malešič, Mejrema Zatrić-Šahović, Hana Bečeić, Antun Dulibić, Frano Petar Zovko, and Marija Jurić. Team member Igor Duda also joined the visit to Koper.