Festival OHS 2026 – Vsa merila arhitekture
The Open House Slovenia Architecture Festival (OHS) will open the doors of high-quality Slovenian architecture across the country for the seventeenth consecutive year. The event will take place from 17 to 19 April 2026, offering visitors free guided tours of more than 100 architectural projects of various typologies.
The festival has long been based on the direct experience of space. Architecture is not only observed from a distance or from the outside, but we enter it, experience it, and explore it through movement, light, material, and everyday use. The festival promotes a responsible approach to the built environment and an understanding of architecture as a shared social value. By opening the doors of high-quality projects, it enables a direct experience of designed space and invites the public to engage in an active dialogue about how we build, (co)exist, and what kind of environment we leave to future generations. The selected projects demonstrate what solutions architecture can offer to the key challenges of contemporary society.
This year’s festival programme was selected from submitted proposals by an expert jury composed of four professionals in the field of architecture: Matjaž Bolčina (architect, ARP studio), Katja Cimperman (architect, abiro studio), Ana Kosi (architect and curator, KIP), and Uroš Rustja (architect and assistant professor at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana, VOID arhitektura).
Architecture, like other branches of art, is not necessarily understood or universally appreciated. Yet it carries within it a message and numerous stories connected to place, client, user, creation, and construction. Personal struggles and frustrations on one hand, or satisfaction in achieved goals on the other. These are the stories that we can discover at festivals such as OHS, by walking through their materialized form, and they are essential for understanding architecture and the work of the architect. The realization that architecture is not about universal appeal or unquestioned acceptance, but about careful and thoughtful interdisciplinary practice that, alongside aesthetic experience, seeks to improve living conditions and offer new paths, is a significant contribution to the development of spatial culture and perhaps also to a deeper appreciation and respect for architecture.
(Katja Cimperman, studio abiro)
This year’s Open House Slovenia Festival is presented under the theme “All Measures of Architecture”. It raises the following questions: Where is architecture headed? Who does it speak to? For whom is it “calibrated”? It is not merely a matter of physical measure, the scope of an architectural task, or the client’s financial capacity and receptiveness. Architecture operates on multiple levels: it provides a home, opens up public space, shapes the landscape, and builds community. Yet most important is its right measure—one that fosters relationships, an open and inclusive society, respect for the past, and responsibility toward the environment.
Architecture can express its generosity through modest gestures, and above all, it can become a measure of dialogue. Every existing form in space and every intervention—no matter how small—becomes a measure for others. Not only for architecture, but also for people and society as a whole. This is its task and responsibility.
As part of the festival, visitors will have the opportunity to explore a wide range of projects across Slovenia, including educational, social, and cultural institutions, private apartments, single-family houses, housing developments, as well as business and tourism facilities. In Ljubljana, visitors will be able to see the recently opened Cukrarna Palace, the new youth center of the Mladi zmaji organization. Vevče swimming pool complex, the Residentian neighbourhood Zvezna, the Seed, nursery and forest protection centre, and one of the largest and most important construction sites at the moment—the new Ljubljana railway station—will also open their doors.
In the Gorenjska region, visitors will be able to see the Renovation of the outbuilding at the Prešeren homestead in Vrba and the award-winning Twin Alpine Houses. Visitors will also be able to join an architectural walk “Plečnik in Kranj.” In Maribor, the festival invites visitors to a guided tour of the Rotovž Center construction site and Langer Villa, as well as the renovated orangery of Dornava Manor. In Novo mesto, a guided tour of the Srebrniče cemetery will be organized, and in Črnomelj, visitors can explore the renovated Cultural Centre.
On the Primorska region, the programme will also include the Libertas cultural center construction site, the Tolmin Gorges entrance point, and Lumarium, a space for exploring and experiencing light.
This year, the festival also extends beyond Slovenia’s borders. In Trieste, visitors will be able to see the Slovene Permanent Theatre, one of the key examples of post-war modernist architecture created by Slovenians outside their home country. Visitors will also be able to enter the remarkable Vurnik Chapel, where architecture, painting, and sculpture intertwine.
Each year, the Open House Slovenia Festival collaborates with various cultural and educational institutions that open their doors during the festival and offer visitors free guided tours of their exhibitions, programmes, and activities. In this way, the festival extends beyond individual buildings and opens a broader space for understanding architecture in dialogue with other artistic and social practices. This year, among others, Plečnik House, the Museum of Architecture and Design, and the Maribor Art Gallery will open their doors.
The full programme of this year’s Open House Slovenia Architecture Festival is available on the OHS online platform. Registration for tours and guided visits is mandatory and will open on 8 April.
As part of the festival, visitors will once again be able to vote for the best projects in the categories Public, Social and Business Projects, Housing Projects, and Timber Projects. Voting for the OHS Award will take place on the festival website and will begin on the first day of the festival, 17 April.
Partners and supporters of the Open House Slovenia Festival 2026
