Marjetica Potrč Explores Community-Based Architecture and Adaptive Living

Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč creates installations and projects that examine how communities worldwide manage resources and build living spaces. Her work, spanning over twenty years, focuses on water, energy, and housing systems that evolve through local practices rather than formal planning. Notable projects include 'Forest Rising' (2007) at The Barbican in London, which reconstructs an Amazonian elevated settlement; 'Caracas: Growing Houses' (2012), highlighting informal housing expansion in Venezuela; 'Shelter: Closed and Open' (2018), contrasting defensive and open structures from Kosovo and Brazil; 'The House of Agreement between Humans and the Earth' (2022), presented at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney; and 'Between the Waters: The Emscher Community Garden' (2010), a collaborative garden in Germany's Ruhr region with visible water systems. Potrč's approach treats utopia as an ongoing, participatory method shaped by community knowledge and adaptability.