Outsider is an independent Slovenian magazine focusing on architecture, culture and society. Its web portal is updated daily – and every three months a printed magazine with 200 pages of original content hits newsstands and bookshops across the country. Architects Nina and Matevž Granda founded Outsider in 2015 and continue to curate it, together with a team of architects and a multidisciplinary selection of authors from complementary disciplines.

Outsider is much more than a platform about architecture. It addresses the issues of space in all its dimensions and the creators who work within it. The content connects architecture, culture, art and society. Without compromising on quality, Outsider had succeeded in addressing a large and diverse audience. Outsider  is raising public awareness of the importance of architecture and, above all, the fact that our space – both physical and mental – is a variable that depends on all of us. All of us.

Outsider reaches beyond the sphere of journalism. The magazine organises numerous events, such as the Tools for Better Living festival, architectural competitions, public debates, exhibitions and practical workshops. The magazine brings together experts from different fields and explores new possibilities for architecture that actively respond to the problems of 21st century.

Outsider focuses on the renovation and re-use, on a story and a thought, including architectural design and final realisation, and on exploring the possibilities of building with primal materials such as stone, wood and (rammed) earth. Outsider organises workshops on thinking and practical use of material at the Centre for Building with Earth in Dobrava, with an interdisciplinary team of experts – such as Forward to Earth (link).

Outsider won the Plečnik Medal award – the most important Slovenian professional award in the field of architecture – in 2017. (link) In 2018, Outsider team was selected as authors of the national pavilion at Venice Biennale – and designed an exhibition Catalogue. In 2022, Outsider revitalisation of an abandoned Jože Plečnik-designed kiosk in Ljubljana’s historical centre was one of just 25 projects selected to compete for the European Prize for Urban Public Space. (link) In the same year, 2022, Nina and Matevž Granda were rewarded Honorary membership of the Chamber of Architecture and Spatial Planning of Slovenia (link). 

Outsider’s project on earth construction research and development has been selected as one of the 8 projects (out of 350) to be supported by the CIRCE Foundation in 2023.

In media:

Podcast Razkošje v glavi, Prvi program Radia Slovenija (voditelj: Miha Žorž), 20. maj 2023

Interview Dnevnik, Objektiv, 7. 4. 2023 (Bojana Leskovar)

Interview with Nina & Matevž Granda in Sobotna priloga, Delo (Saša Bojc)

Interview: Monocle Magazine, The Stack (journalist: Guy De Launey)

Architectural Journal
Kiosk for the Future

N1: Javni prostor (Suzana Lovec)

The magazine