House on the Hill (2022) 

The housing heritage of our ancestors is disappearing. Isolated farms, workers' residences and townhouses in the Idrija-Cerkno region rapidly deteriorate if they are not properly maintained. By creating business opportunities at the intersection of cultural heritage, architecture, and advertising, the "House on the Hill" project will establish the conditions for their preservation.

Development of a Comprehensive Support Service

With the House on a Hill project, we are developing a comprehensive support service for the identification, purchase, interpretation, renovation, and management of the built residential heritage homes in the Idrija-Cerkno region, which targets socially engaged and responsible investors or real estate buyers from abroad. With the project, we connect the business sector with the area of cultural heritage. By developing innovative sales approaches and targeting a specific segment of buyers in the international space, the service will ensure the inflow of capital into areas outside the centres of the cohesion region of Western Slovenia (the Idrija-Cerkno region) with the ultimate aim of restoring and preserving the endangered residential heritage the Idrija-Cerkno region. The project’s long-term goal is to bring life to the now dilapidated buildings and to help preserve the cultural landscape and the traditional knowledge associated with it. The project has the potential to stimulate marketing, architectural, design, research and cultural activities. It will indirectly contribute to the dynamism of local communities and the revival of traditional craft skills.

The goals of the project are:

  • Verification of the concept of promoting entrepreneurship in the cultural heritage field and establishing it as an independent activity.
  • With the project, we want to define and test the business model precisely.
  • We want to analyse the target audience and run a detailed check of the hypotheses with the problems of the defined customer segment.
  • We want to carry out a study of potential partners and sources and explore the feasibility of the business idea.
  • By preparing marketing content and its distribution plan, we want to establish channels for successful service commercialisation.
  • In cooperation with the mentor, we want to adapt the service as much as possible to real needs and prepare the foundations for the successful development of commercial activity at the intersection of cultural heritage and entrepreneurship.

Heritage houses Presented to International Buyers

With the project, we aim to mobilise a segment of buyers from abroad who want to create a second home in a peaceful environment and, at the same time, safely invest their funds in the purchase of the real estate. It was the COVID-19 epidemic that showed the lack of human contact with nature and traditional living patterns. With the closure of public life, large cities became prisons for those who did not have the opportunity to retreat to the periphery. The closure was less significant in smaller cities, but things remained unchanged in the countryside. This realisation has led many people to think about establishing a second home, which allows them to retreat from the urban to an area of nature and peace. The House on the Hill will make this possible.

More about the project: https://www.rudarske-hise.si/

Grant value: 14,960.00 EUR

Project duration: 1 March 2022 – 31 December 2022

Mentor with whom we work on the project: Boštjan Jerman

The Republic of Slovenia and the European Union co-financed the project from the European Regional Development Fund and the Ministry of Culture and the Centre for Creativity.