The exhibition Architect Ivan Vurnik: Then and Now, 1884–2024 will open on the promenade in the Maribor City Park on Saturday, 4 October 2025, at 11:00. 

The Maribor City Park promenade will host an exhibition on the work of Ivan Vurnik, one of the leading architects of Slovenian modernism, founding professor of the Ljubljana School of Architecture, innovator, and artist. The exhibition aims to highlight the architect's leading and some lesser-known works, such as the archbishop's chapel in Trieste, the sanatorium in Golnik, the Sokolski dom in Tabor in Ljubljana, the Aljaž Chapel in Vrata, the workers' colony in Maribor, the Obla Gorica swimming pool in Radovljica, the monument to composer Jurij Fleišman in Beričevo near Ljubljana, and the urban planning of Bled.

With the so-called "workers' colony" from the 1920s in Tabor – today known as the Vurnik colony – Vurnik made his mark on the architectural history of Maribor. The residential colony, which covers 50,000 m² and comprises 211 terraced houses, was designed by Vurnik for employees of the municipal office for workers' insurance. It is the architect's only completed urban planning project, the first example of a "garden city" in Slovenia, and a pioneering solution to the country's housing problem.

Ivan Vurnik belongs to the first generation of highly educated Slovenian architects who studied in Vienna and had a profound influence on Slovenian architecture. Vurnik was one of four architects, including the older Maks Fabiani (1865–1962), Ivan Jager (1871–1959), and Jože Plečnik (1872–1957). Although he was the youngest, he was given the demanding task of establishing the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering at the new University of Ljubljana in 1919. He was a man of many talents and versatile as an architect, urban planner, designer, educator, and researcher. In his professional work, he drew on his family's tradition of painting and, in keeping with the changes of the times, was enthusiastic about various trends, from Art Nouveau patterns, expressionist elements, the romantic search for a national style, and decorative initiatives to functionalism, which was always based on solid knowledge. Due to professional disagreements, in 1925, she and Plečnik organized the study program of the Ljubljana school in two separate seminars, where Vurnik's school represented an alternative to Plečnik's more modern architectural world. Vurnik followed technical progress and modern trends in the development of architecture worldwide, and through his design and teaching work, he was a pioneer in introducing modern architectural solutions. 

The exhibition was organized by the Center arhitekture Slovenije and the Museum of Architecture and Design on the 140th anniversary of Ivan Vurnik's birth, shedding new light on the architect's oeuvre and presenting his influence on the development of Slovenian architecture. The architect's major works are presented through reproductions of original plans, preserved photographs, and contemporary photographs by architectural photographer Miran Kambič. Photographs of the current state of the buildings express the users' relationship to architecture, its preservation, care, and, at the same time, its transformation through space and time. 

The exhibition and program are part of Vurnik Days 2025, produced in collaboration with the Center arhitekture Slovenije, with support from the Municipality of Maribor and the Radovljica Local Community.

The general sponsor of the project in Maribor is Energija Plus.