Architecture Conference 2025

May 22
12.00-18.00

Aleksander Ostan, Curator

An architect and urban planner, teaches at Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture. He co-runs Atelje Ostan Pavlin, focusing on sustainable, holistic design. Ostan is active internationally, conducts workshops, lectures, and writes, with numerous awards.

Common sense/space/responsability … in architecture

This year’s conference will continue with remarkable stories of specially chosen and invited architects who push the boundaries of professional, sustainable paradigms in a personal and distinctive way, emerging from the different spaces and times in which they live and work.

The framework of this year’s BIG Architecture festival is “common sense,” which could also be translated as holistic, sound, and prudent judgment, based on a simple perception of situations and facts, and which from such insight also leads to the ability to make wise decisions and actions. It is, therefore, a kind of natural intelligence, quite independent of specialised knowledge and learning, and by its very nature grounded, realistic, and sensitive at the same time – something that our world needs very much in these critical times in which we find ourselves! This attitude is also urgently needed in the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture and spatial planning to be able to avoid too many insensitive, irrational, and irreversible interventions in the space/places we live in.

If we extend the above described ability (»common sense«) to make decisions in practical matters of architecture to the field of the phenomenon of »common spaces«, which can connect us together into collaborative communities, and further to the area of »common responsibility«, which obliges us to treat our planet with sensitivity and sensibility, we have a triad of categories that are key to balanced, sustainable intervention in space, to holistic and high-quality contemporary architecture that is also connected with our common heritage and diverse traditions.

The latter is confronted with difficult and complex themes that were not addressed decades ago or were only anticipated by the most conscious and cultivated among architects: from awareness of the limits of growth to climate change, from energy sustainability to the importance of sustainable materiality, from the use of digital tools to the dilemmas of artificial intelligence, from the importance of participation in decision-making to confrontations with global geostrategic upheavals, policies, and so on.

Continuing with last year’s conference personal testimonies, we will listen to a variety of architectural and human stories that come from different cultural contexts and respond to them in different ways: narratives about the holistic design of communities, about the integration of tradition and innovation, about processes of renovation, adaptive reuse and reurbanisation, about the contemporary use of traditional materials and technologies, about the sensitive design of open spaces and landscapes, about the exploration and design of sacred spaces, about the autonomous, ethical stance of creators resisting the unconscionable pressures of politics, investors … or other irrational circumstances of different projects, etc.

We will make sure that within the conference, you will listen to and meet interesting personalities who will inspire you with their stories! And, of course, there will be space and time for questions and discussions with them, meeting them in person after the lectures in an informal setting! In short, the conference will offer an open, interactive space/time platform for the mutual exchange of ideas, experiences and professional acquaintances!

Aleksander Ostan, Curator

About the Conference

The BIG Architecture Conference organised since 2008 is an international event that brings together architects to explore and discuss the latest developments and future directions in architecture. Conference explores the relationship between quality design, response, and change. A selection of internationally-engaged architects addresses these topics through their exceptional work and a dynamic dialogue-process within the framework of the event. Attendees can expect to be inspired by creative solutions, gain a deeper understanding of industry challenges, and discover opportunities for collaboration and professional growth. The conference aims to foster an environment where participants can share ideas, learn from each other, and contribute to the evolution of the architectural field.

As part of BIG Architecture, there have been numerous distinguished internationally recognised architects in the past as seen bellow.