WHO WE ARE

APSS Institute is a space for architectural thinking, learning, and experimentation, born from the energy of the KotorAPSS Summer School, which brought together students, architects, and thinkers in the unique setting of a former Austro-Hungarian prison in Montenegro’s UNESCO-listed town of Kotor.

Since its founding in 2012, APSS has grown into an independent platform that connects critical research, informal education, and hands-on design. At its core is the belief that architecture is a tool for reflection, conversation, and change—deeply embedded in the social and physical landscapes it addresses.

WHAT WE DO

We work through summer schools, exhibitions, symposia, and collaborative research. Our focus is on RE-USE, urban transformation, natural and cultural heritage, and the social responsibility of architecture. We’ve curated national pavilions and independent exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, taken part in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, Tbilisi Biennial, Tirana Triennale, co-authored urban studies for Manifesta 14 in Pristina.

Through the years, we’ve created a learning environment where students, professionals, and local communities meet to reimagine architecture as a shared, participatory process. Education—especially in its informal, experimental form—is central to everything we do.

We initiate and develop research projects with the intention of driving meaningful change. That is why we are particularly proud of the processes that have, over time, contributed to the restoration of the Old Prison in Kotor, as well as the rehabilitation project for the Dom revolucije — although, regrettably, never brought to completion. 

Alongside long-term research and fieldwork, the Institute curates exhibitions, lectures, and public events—such as the international showcase on Svetlana Kana Radević, the REINFORCE project program, and a series of critical events held across Venice, Kotor, and Tirana—creating platforms for dialogue, reflection, and exchange.

WHAT WE BELIEVE IN

We believe that architecture is a cultural practice shaped by dialogue, not authorship; that asking the right questions is more important than offering definitive answers; and that every project must be grounded in its context—social, spatial, environmental, and political.
We value the unfinished, the reimagined, and the re-used. Our work engages with post-industrial landscapes like Ulcinj Salina, neglected heritage such as the Old Prison in Kotor, and the overlooked legacies of architects like Svetlana Kana Radević—not to monumentalize them, but to open them up to new interpretations and use.
Our current involvement in the New Cross National Temporality Project, supported by Creative Europe, reflects our ongoing commitment to critical, collaborative, and situated thinking about architecture and its role in shaping shared futures.

WHY IT MATTERS

APSS Institute is not just about architecture—it’s about people, processes, and places. Over a decade of work, we’ve built a network of thinkers, doers, and visionaries who are reshaping how architecture is taught, discussed, and made in the Balkans and beyond.

We’re here to challenge the status quo, to ask harder questions, and to make room—literally and metaphorically—for alternative futures.