Slowly becoming over time
Located in a small village in the Karst region of Slovenia, Neverending House has evolved over more than two decades. Since purchasing the property in 2003, artist Matej Andraž Vogrini has approached the old dwelling not as real estate but as an open framework for gradual transformation. Rather than completing a conventional renovation in a single phase, he allowed the house to develop incrementally, layered over time. Periods between exhibitions, reflections after travel, conversations in the courtyard, and materials or furniture acquired by chance have all contributed to its formation. The house remains deliberately unfinished, like a diary that continues to be written.
A defining feature is the reinterpretation of the traditional Karst gank, a narrow wooden gallery running along the façade of rural houses. Here it has been transformed into a glass-enclosed upper-level corridor filled with daylight. The corridor connects the rooms while maintaining a visual relationship with the courtyard. This transparent passage mediates between interior and exterior. The gesture extends the artist’s long-standing practice of dressing. Instead of clothing façades with fabric, he overlays tradition with glass, adding a layer of light that brings past and present into dialogue. The gallery is no longer an appendage but a spatial device that binds the house together.
Though initiated as a personal project, Neverending House has been shaped collectively. Decisions emerged through informal dialogue with architects, craftsmen, friends, and family, often over coffee in the courtyard. This approach reflects the traditional building culture of the Karst, where construction and repair were communal acts guided by necessity, shared knowledge, and improvisation. Rather than relying on large budgets, interventions were introduced gradually as resources allowed. Furniture was sourced secondhand or reused from previous installations, and building materials were recycled or adapted whenever possible. Each addition carries memory, recording when, why, and how it entered the house.
Neverending House does not aim for completion. Its future lies not in “completion” but in continuity. Rather than seeking novelty through renovation, it chooses a balance and dialogue between past and present, art and everyday life, permanence and change. Within this ongoing process, the architecture continues to grow. Though it has no final ending, it stands as an example of slow architecture—complete as a life in itself.
Project: The Never-Ending House / Location: Škofi, Slovenia / Architect: OFIS Architects / Project team: Rok Oman, Špela Videnik, Matej Andraž Vogrini / Contractor: artist in collaboration with local craftmen / Client: Matej Andraž Vogrini / Use: artist residence / Site area: 360m² / Bldg. area: 58m² / Project: 2003 / Construction start: 2003 / Photograph: ©Janez Martini (courtesy of the architect)
