Interviewed in Ljubljana, June 4th 2004

ORIS: Being an architect denotes the direction of your life. Your activities involve research, as well as teaching work at the Faculty on one hand, and architectural realizations on the other. Since we are not talking about the classic situation of an architect we wonder what the goals and values you are pursuing are?

Koželj: At first glance, it may seem that there are no inter-connections in my architectural work. If one wanted to compare my realized buildings and my research work, one could not find a single thing in common between them. Every work is unique in some way, and is a consequence of existing circumstances in a moment of time on the one hand, and on the other hand, the outcome of certain value judgements, or even strategic positions that concern the problem, which I try to establish in advance. The key purpose of my work is the expansion of space for architecture; the occupation of all spaces and interspaces, where an architect can do something or change something. My professional standpoint is very clear: an architect is a public cultural worker, as well as developmental engineer, who takes care of the public quality of interventions in the environment. An architect must follow the problems and must resolve them; he must face various contexts, tasks, challenges, and must permanently pursue every possibility for the resolution of these problems.