Healthy Futures for an Industrial Past: Re-Generation and Resilience in Trbovlje, Slovenia

Across Europe, former industrial landscapes are being reimagined as spaces for healing and innovation. In Slovenia, one such site, a decommissioned coal power plant, is becoming a testing ground for new ideas about restoration, resilience, and design.

In late October, Healthy Materials Lab’s Alison Mears and Leila Bejhat visited Trbovlje and Hrastnik, Slovenia, as part of ongoing conversations about future collaborations and material health education. Their visit marks the beginning of an exciting new initiative: a spring 2026 Parsons Architecture Design Studio centered on the restoration and adaptive reuse of the Thermal Power Plant (TET) in Trbovlje, a site of deep environmental and cultural significance.

For decades, the plant fueled Slovenia’s energy needs while blanketing the valley in sulfur dust, smoke, and toxic emissions that polluted the air, water, and soil. Heavy metals from the burning process were deposited in the surrounding landscape, and for many years, life in the valley struggled to survive under this toxic haze.

Since the plant’s closure, however, the local ecosystem has begun to recover. Vegetation has returned to the riverbanks, air and water quality have improved, and wildlife has started to reappear. This recovery is a powerful local example of how moving away from fossil fuels can support the restoration of ecosystems and biodiversity.

Following Slovenia’s independence in 1991, the nation embraced a new future rooted in community, culture, and environmental awareness. As industries declined, municipalities like Trbovlje began exploring how to honor their industrial heritage while charting a path toward ecological restoration and social renewal.

Today, the TET power plant stands as both a reminder of the past and a symbol of potential transformation.

During their visit, Alison and Leila explored Njiva/Kolonija, a preserved nineteenth-century apartment once home to coal miners. The modest housing complex reveals an unexpected architectural sensitivity. Ornamental wall and ceiling paintings recently uncovered in the oldest unit point to a history of care and artistry often overlooked in industrial housing.

They also joined a community discussion in a newly created “Living Room” installation located next to the local public library. HML EU collaborated on the materials selection for the new community space that  serves as a civic commons, a place for dialogue, imagination, and shared visions for the town’s future. There, Alison and Leila met residents, cultural leaders, and municipal representatives who spoke of the town’s evolving identity and its hopes for regeneration.

At a special event on October 22, Alison and Leila presented Parsons’ and Healthy Materials Lab’s work to the Mayor of Trbovlje, mag. Zoran Poznič, and members of the municipality. They shared examples of material health initiatives across the United States and Europe, as well as insights from past international design studios, including one in Ukraine.

The upcoming Parsons Slovenia Studio will invite students to engage directly with this context. Working in collaboration with local partners, students will study the site’s ecological conditions, industrial history, and community aspirations to propose new uses and architectural interventions that could revitalize the power plant and its surrounding landscape.

Through this project, Parsons students and local collaborators will examine how design can become an instrument for repair, socially, environmentally, and materially. The studio will explore questions central to Healthy Materials Lab’s mission:

• How can we create buildings that are truly affordable, healthy, and beautiful for everyone?
• Can we prove that building or rebuilding with healthier materials is not only possible, but also economically, socially, and environmentally viable across Europe?
• Can these same principles guide both the renovation of existing structures and the design of new ones?

The story of Trbovlje, its smokestack, its scars, and its potential, offers a powerful lens through which to consider these questions. The recent recovery of the valley’s natural systems demonstrates that regeneration is possible when communities transition away from fossil fuel dependency. As we look ahead to the spring semester, we are reminded that every act of design is also an act of restoration, and that even the most polluted landscapes can become places of learning, regeneration, and hope.