As Gaza remains in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis and faces unprecedented destruction of its cultural and natural heritage, violence against the Palestinians continues to escalate along with the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. The destruction of entire neighbourhoods, agricultural landscapes, public infrastructure and heritage is threatening to erase their communities, historical memory and centuries-old traditions.

The international public has seen increasingly heated debates emerging regarding the future and reconstruction of Gaza, including ideas of turning Gaza into a tourist backdrop or a luxury resort. Such proposals disregard the needs and rights of the local population and undermine the chances for a sustainable and just reconstruction rooted in the practices and collective efforts of the local communities.

In collaboration with Gibanje za pravice Palestincev (Movement for the Rights of Palestinians) and the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Primorska, the Museum of Architecture is going to host a conversation with Palestinian-British architect Antoine Raffoul. Our focus will be on the future of Gaza, the role of space, architecture and heritage during and after the war, the role of international institutions and the need for their more active engagement in the protection and reconstruction of Gaza. Raffoul insists that any reconstruction process should bear in mind the local community and its understanding of space and history, as well as its future aspirations.

Our point of departure will be Raffoul’s vision for the reconstruction of Gaza, inspired by the understanding of Palestine as a space for everyone wishing to live in peace and his decades-long efforts for the reconstruction of Lifta, a village situated at the western entrance to Jerusalem. Still facing demolition, Lifta was added to the UNESCO tentative list in 2015, owing also to the efforts of Israeli architectural organisations, and included on the World Monuments Fund’s 2018 World Monuments Watch List three years later. The event features screening of Antoine Raffoul’s short animated film portrait of pre-1948 Lifta, which uses modern technologies to visualize life in the village as it could be.

The conversation aims to open up space for a broader discussion on the ways in which the rebuilding of Gaza can unfold not as just a technical matter, but a process that integrates social, cultural and historic dimensions of the space.

The conversation will be in English, and will be moderated by Dr. Neža Čebron Lipovec, Asst. Prof. at the Faculty of Humanities, UP.

The event is part of the Free Palestine programme, a series of events organized by Movement for the Rights of Palestinians and Divja Misel institute and partners to mark the anniversary of the Nakba. It is open to everyone interested in learning more and participating in the discussion.

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Antoine Raffoul is a Palestinian British architect, born in 1941 in Nazareth, Palestine. In 1948, he was expelled together with ten members of his family from their home in Haifa, Palestine, by Zionist underground forces. The family then temporarily settled in Lebanon, from where they were never able to return, as the borders were soon closed. Their home in Haifa was demolished in the early 1970s.

He received his architectural degree from the University of Illinois, USA (1968), after which he began his career in New York City at Victor Gruen Associates under the auspices of the then young Cesar Pelli. In 1971, he moved to London, where he worked at Ahrends, Burton and Koralek, and later established his own private architectural practice, which he ran for more than 28 years.

During this time, he launched a campaign against the “architecture of erasure” in Palestine and called for the expulsion, from their professional institutions, of architects involved in the design and construction of illegal Jewish settlements in Historic Palestine in violation of International Law. He is a Chartered Member of The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London, and a member of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), CIAV (International Committee on Vernacular Architecture), and a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society (RGS), London.

In his work, he combines architecture, the study of vernacular traditions, and political engagement. He focuses in particular on issues of cultural heritage, the Right of Return, and the so-called “architecture of erasure” in Palestine.

In 2007, he initiated efforts to preserve the deserted Palestinian village of Lifta, west of Jerusalem, which was later placed on UNESCO’s Tentative List and on the World Monuments Fund List. He is also the Founder of the platform “1948 Lest We Forget” and co-founder of the international “Architectural Competition for the Rebuilding of Destroyed Palestinian Villages.”

He is actively involved in current initiatives for the rebuilding of Gaza, advocating approaches based on the inclusion of local communities and principles of spatial justice. He lectures and publishes in the fields of architecture, politics, and cultural heritage, and is currently preparing a book about his travels through Andalucia, Morocco, and the Algerian Sahara.

For this year’s International Museum Day, ICOM has chosen the theme “Museums Uniting a Divided World.” At the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO), we believe that architecture and design are universal languages that help us understand one another and the space we share.

We invite you to spend two days in the embrace of Fužine Castle, where we have prepared a special program:

FREE ADMISSION

On Sunday, May 17, and Monday, May 18, the museum doors are wide open to all visitors. Take this opportunity for a free tour of all our exhibitions and collections.

GUIDED TOURS: IS NATURE MODERN?

Don’t miss the guided tours of the exhibition Is Nature Modern?, which will take place:

• Sunday, May 17, at 11:00
• Monday, May 18, at 11:00

The guided tours will be held in Slovenian.

The exhibition explores the relationship with nature and approaches to ecological thinking in modernist architecture and design. Its starting point is the MAO collection, featuring a rich array of projects, objects, and documentation from the fields of 20th-century architecture, design, and photography.

EXHIBITION IN FOCUS: THE PATH ALONG THE WIRE. THE FIRST STEP

As part of this year’s theme of connection, we are placing special emphasis on the exhibition The Path Along the Wire. The First Step. Through an architectural and historical framework, the exhibition addresses questions of borders and divisions, while highlighting the symbolism of connection represented today by Ljubljana’s green arterial path.

The exhibition focuses on the first stage of the path designed by architect Vlasto Kopač—the project of marking and staking out the route. After the first Partisan march in 1957 revealed that the trail following the wire was unkempt and difficult to track, Kopač defined and staked its course. According to his plans, 102 pillars—octagonal stones with the wire engraved—were placed near bunkers, while monuments with sculptural reliefs were erected at crossing points to serve as landmarks. Much like a mountain trail, the route gained a recognizable, visible, and easily traceable direction through its trodden path and spatial markers. However, the path is not just a monument; it is a space that enables a ritual of commemoration through walking. At the same time, it serves as a recreational area, a city park, and sports infrastructure.

See you at MAO!

International Symposium

Tuesday, 19 May 2026, 10:00–17:00, Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana

The symposium Is Nature Modern? accompanies the exhibition of the same title at the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) and is part of the broader international project Bauhaus Ecologies, conceived by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb, and MAO. The event explores how modernist design, architecture, and spatial practices have shaped evolving conceptions of nature, ecology, and the environment. It brings together researchers, curators, architects, and designers to examine the intersections of modernist thought, environmental history, material cultures, vernacular knowledge, and contemporary ecological issues.

Situated at the intersection of heritage, culture, and society, the symposium will address pressing contemporary issues from a variety of perspectives. It will not treat nature as a passive backdrop to human activity but will understand it as an active condition of architecture, design, and everyday life. In this sense, the Bauhaus Ecologies project will position itself within a broader historical arc: from modernist experiments in living, building, and production to contemporary debates on sustainability, coexistence, and environmental responsibility.

Is Nature Modern? invites a critical re-reading of modernity’s ecological legacies and asks how historical approaches to environmental thinking in architecture and design might be reconsidered today. At a time when the climate crisis demands new forms of attention and action, the symposium asks what can be learned from earlier experiments, materials, practices, and forms of knowledge, and how these lessons might help move beyond narratives of appropriation, control, and extraction toward more situated, reciprocal, and responsible ways of being in the world.

PROGRAMME

09:30–10:00 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE

10:00–10:05 WELCOME

• Maja Vardjan, director, Museum of Architecture and Design

10:05–10:30 INTRODUCTION: BAUHAUS ECOLOGIES PROJECT

• Cvetka Požar, Museum of Architecture and Design, Ljubljana
• Vera Lauf, Bauhaus Dessau Fundation, Dessau
• Vesna Meštrić, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

10:30–11:30 SITUATED ECOLOGIES: HISTORIES OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL PRESENT

Moderator: Cvetka Požar

Lectures:

• Regina Bittner, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, »The Bauhaus has Never been Modern”: Environmental Thinking as a Modernist Legacy?
• Pavel Gantar, Ecological Narratives in Late Socialism through the Changing Relationship between Nature and Modernity

11:30–11:45 COFFEE BREAK

• Robin V Hueppe, ETH Zürich, How Deep the Still Waters, How Tall the Silent Giants: Mass Housing Landscapes in Berlin
• Gaja Mežnarić Osole and Danica Sretenović, Krater, Land is Never Empty: From Planned Neighbourhoods to Feral Urban Ecologies,

13:00–13:30 Q&A

13:30–14:00 LUNCH

14:00–15:00 EXHIBITION AS DISCOURSE: GUIDED WALK

During the guided tour of the exhibition, guest speakers will engage the audience with presentations and reflections on the exhibited material and the broader theme of the symposium.

Moderator: Maja Vardjan

Contributions:

• Eva Gusel, The Vernacular as a (Modernist) Method
• Uroš Mikanović and Blaž Šenica, We Have Never Been Sustainable
• Peter Šenk, Pragmatisms/Ecoutopias
• Altan Jurca Avci, Architecture Between Self-Management and the State Apparatus: The 1951 Urban Plan for Kranj
• Kaja Kisilak, Katja Pahor, Self-sown
• Aljaž Rudolf, Ecologisation of Architectural Practice

15:00–16:30 EXHIBITION AS DISCOURSE: TABLE TALK

The Table Talk will bring together symposium participants and special guests for a joint reflection on the exhibition’s themes, materials, and perspectives. Rather than presenting a unified narrative, it will open a space for exchange among researchers, curators, experts, and the public. Set within the exhibition, the round table becomes a temporary environment for collective thinking that transcends disciplines, geographies, and scales, as well as frictions that emerge when nature and ecology are understood not as a backdrop, but as  active conditions of creative practices.

Special guests:

• Sonja Dragović, researcher in the field of urban studies
• Gilly Karjevsky, urban curator
• Robin Winogrond, landscape architect and urban planner

16:30–16:45 FINAL REMARKS

The event at MAO, organized as part of the Bauhaus Ecologies project, will be followed by a conference in Zagreb:

ART, ENVIRONMENT, AND CRITICAL THINKING IN EASTERN AND SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

Wednesday, 20 May 2026, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

We also recommend:

Festivities Under Siege

20–22 May 2026, Krater and its sister feral lands

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Direction and Concept: Maja Vardjan and Cvetka Požar

Coordination: Blažka Kirm

Graphic Design: AA + Studio Kruh

Exhibition Space Design: Manca Košir, Jan Kozinc

Public Relations: Maša Špiler

Technicians: Matjaž Rozina, Tadej Golob

In cooperation with:

Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau

Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb

The programme is supported by

On the first weekend of June, as part of the European initiative Rendez-vous aux jardins (Meet Us in the Gardens), we invite you to visit parks and gardens in more than twenty European countries. This year’s theme is viewpoints. The initiative, which originated in France, aims to bring the diversity and richness of garden and park heritage closer to the public, highlight its cultural significance, and emphasize the positive impact of green spaces on people’s well-being.

Join us in the MAO park!

The park of the Renaissance Fužine Castle, home to the Museum of Architecture and Design, was arranged in the 19th century. It is characterized by old tree species such as plane trees and chestnuts, as well as landscaped paths along the river, creating a pleasant blend of natural and cultural environments.

At the event, we will explore different tree species, make leaf and bark prints, build a model of the park and the castle, and try out the role of landscape architects. Along the way, we will also discover interesting architectural elements, including the original roof turret from the Provincial Mansion (now the seat of the University of Ljubljana), and visit a nature-based playground created as part of the Museum in the Community project. We will explore a hidden pond, learn about urban beekeeping and the importance of ecological corridors, and observe birds and other park inhabitants.

The event is intended for children and young people up to the age of 15.

As part of the Rendez-vous aux jardins (Meet Us in the Gardens) initiative, when numerous gardens and parks across Europe open their doors to the public, we invite you to join a guided tour of the Fužine Castle park at MAO.

The Fužine Castle park represents an important example of the interplay between historical landscape design and contemporary urban space. It took on its present form in the 19th century, when Fidelis Terpinc, the then owner of the castle, transformed the grounds into a park. Plane trees, cypresses, carob trees, and other exotic trees and shrubs were planted. The park was renovated in the early 1990s. Today, it is a public space at the intersection of natural heritage, a riverside environment, and dense residential development. This layering raises a number of questions about its management, significance, and future development.

Through its historical context and transformations, the tour will present the park from the perspective of landscape architecture, spatial use, and contemporary environmental challenges. Special emphasis will be placed on biodiversity and sustainable management practices (such as mowing intensity, the role of urban beekeeping, and the identification and evaluation of wild-growing, including edible, plant species).

The guided tour will be conducted in collaboration with members of the Trajna association for the development of sustainable design.