NEXUS 38 OFIS ARHITEKTI

With the Republic of Slovenia declaring its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 Slovenia became an honourable member of the world of late capitalism, and in 2004 a member of the European Union. It would take too long to explain in detail why Slovenia became a successful member of the empire of late capitalism, but what can be said of architecture is that several young architects such as Spela Videcnik and Rok Oman of Ofis arhitekti became familiar with the blurring of the distinctions between art, fashion, high and low culture, design and politics, individualisation, and consumption.

Not only Ofis, but other young architects oriented themselves to the West and decided early on in their careers to study architecture in post-Fordist countries like Great Britain, the USA, Holland and Finland, thus making the leap from a Communist welfare state into a late-capitalist state -with the help of their international aesthetics- easier and more promising for Slovenia. From that moment on, a new generation of architects paved the way for Slovenia to move into world capitalism. The work by Ofis compiled in this issue of 2G represents a good example of this new generation of architects from Eastern Europe.