The recipients of the 2026 Plečnik Awards

The recipients of the Plečnik Awards have been announced! On Monday, 25 May 2026, the Architect Jože Plečnik Fund presented the awards for the fifty-third time.

The expert jury, comprising Andreas Ruby, Blaž Budja, Mojca Gregorski, Uroš Rustja, and Rok Žnidaršič, this year awarded one Plečnik Award, four Plečnik Medals, and one student scholarship across five categories (for architectural realisation at a larger and smaller scale, for public space, professional publishing, and the enrichment of spatial culture).

The president of the 2026 Plečnik Awards jury, Andreas Ruby, wrote:

“For thirty years, contemporary architecture in Slovenia appeared to follow a clear direction. After independence in 1991, a new generation of architects emerged with extraordinary force — educated in architecture schools at home and abroad, full of new ideas, new approaches, and a strong desire to build a different future. This was an architecture that embraced the tension between old and new, between context and intervention, between what existed and what might begin anew.

But today, a shift has occurred. Among the projects submitted for the 2026 Plečnik Awards, we can sense the emergence of a different attitude which is quieter, more modest, yet no less radical. Adaptive reuse, originally motivated by ethics, is now becoming an architectural strategy with its own aesthetic. This restraint in the use of resources saves more than just material. It also preserves meaning. For buildings and urban spaces embody memory. They hold social experience, collective identity, and forms of knowledge that vanish when erased. Working with what exists, then, does not diminish ambition. It transforms it: not spectacle, but effect; not excess, but strength; not the hammer, but the scalpel.

We are witnessing a shift from efficiency to sufficiency: from intervening as much as possible to discovering exactly how much intervention is needed, no more, no less. This shift is still unfolding. But it is already visible. Perhaps it will define a new chapter in Slovenian architecture: an architecture that does not seek to overshadow what exists, but to make it the key agent of its own transformation. Compassionate, intelligent, and restrained. Do you feel the shift?”

The Plečnik Award for public space goes to Čolnarna Zaka. The project authors are Rok Oman, Špela Videčnik, Janez Martinčič, Andrej Gregorič, Rok Dolinšek, Amadej Mravlak, Matej Krajnc, Vladyslav Bondarenko, Adrien Riviere, Domen Ovsenik, and Tilen Sepič.

The jury stated in its reasoning: “The renovation of the boathouse on Lake Bled preserves the continuity of architectural heritage through its thoughtful reinterpretation within a contemporary spatial and social context. By retaining the original architecture, subjecting it to an almost forensic analysis, and innovatively reusing its design elements, the authors have created a distinctly restrained yet atmospherically rich architectural solution. The jury recognises the highest quality in precisely what remains undone — in the conscious absence of intervention, as well as in a series of small, carefully considered moves whose combined effect establishes a new approach to understanding the relationship between past and present.”

The Plečnik Medal for architectural realisation at a smaller scale goes to House B2. The project authors are Matjaž Bolčina, Ernest Milčinović, Urška Bertok Herman, and Jan Žonta.

The jury wrote of the project: “House B2 reveals the power of architectural compassion. The architects, who took on a project on a site with an ordinary house from 1927, decided together with their clients not to demolish it, but instead to unlock its hidden potential. With great care, they opened it up towards the rear, creating a hypnotic enfilade from the street through the house and out again into the garden. The discreet merging of old and new produces a beauty that new construction could not achieve. It is a contemporary beauty that serves as a reminder that we must treat our world more gently and understand that the answer to our desires may be hidden in something we already have.”

The Plečnik Medal for architectural realisation at a larger scale goes to the project Renovation of the Main Square in Vipava. The project authors are Tomaž Krušec, Lena Krušec, and Neža Novak.

From the jury report: “The authors of the Vipava square renovation project have, through a respectful treatment of the existing and a perceptive reading of the space, established an environment where nothing is superfluous. The renovated square does not compete with the existing architecture, but rather highlights it through restrained, considered interventions. The jury recognised the greatest quality of the solution in precisely this restraint of architectural language. Rather than burdening the space with pronounced design gestures, the authors opted for an intervention grounded in respectful dialogue with what already exists. The square has thus not become a standalone architectural object, but instead functions as a spatial framework that allows for a clearer reading and perception of the historic urban fabric.”

The Plečnik Medal for the enrichment of spatial culture goes to the book Plečnik’s Green Ljubljana, authored by Darja Pergovnik and edited by Maja Kovač.

The jury stated in its reasoning: “The book Plečnik’s Green Ljubljana, by shedding light on the often overlooked landscape architecture elements of Plečnik’s open space designs in Ljubljana, opens a new and relevant perspective on his legacy. Drawing on in-depth research and years of conservation experience, the author establishes professional foundations for the renovation, management, and maintenance of these spaces. The work makes a significant contribution to understanding the wholeness of Plečnik’s architecture and enriches spatial culture with a timely reflection on the relationship between the built and natural environment.”

The Plečnik Medal for publishing goes to the book by Miloš Kosec, Enfilades: The Life of a Dwelling.

The jury wrote of the award: “With Miloš Kosec’s book, Slovenian architecture is enriched by a perspective on the traces of past living culture, its former detours, present-day misconceptions, and future prospects. In doing so, Kosec’s work expands the field of architectural publishing and offers an important insight into contemporary cohabitation.”

The Plečnik Scholarship goes to Nika Jeromel and Erika Slovša for the project Anton, a Slovenian Beehive in an Urban Environment. Mentor: Mitja Zorc, co-mentor: Tadej Urh.

The jury stated in its reasoning: “The Anton beehive was created as a student project at the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana, on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Ljubljana Beekeeping Society. Students Nika Jeromel and Erika Slovša, under the guidance of their mentors, designed an urban beehive in Plečnik’s park along the Gradaščica river. The architecture of the beehive combines Slovenian tradition with contemporary expression and poetically raises pertinent questions about the relationship between nature and the city, the interpretation of tradition, and public space. Rather than offering straightforward answers to these questions, the authors leave room for reflection through their original architectural gesture.”

Congratulations to all the recipients!