In the academic year 1960–61, Prof. Edvard Ravnikar, head of the Department of Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy of the University of Ljubljana, introduced a new experimental design programme – the B Course – alongside the already-existing programme in architecture. Along with his colleagues, he wished to impart to the younger generation the modern design principles he had been following in the 1950s. To do so, he relied on the most respected pedagogical tradition – that of the Bauhaus school and its post-war successor, the School of Design in Ulm, Germany, which he knew very well.

The B Course design programme is important to the development of modern Slovene design and architecture for a number of reasons: because of its introduction of new work methods based on experimental research, its systematic and analytical approach, and its inversion of the order of the study process...

The B Course design programme is important to the development of modern Slovene design and architecture for a number of reasons: because of its introduction of new work methods based on experimental research, its systematic and analytical approach, and its inversion of the order of the study process – and because of the enthusiasm with which students approached their studies and the results we can see, even many years later, in the work of former students. Although discontinued in its second year because of opposition and other problems, the B Course can be ranked among those European and North American design schools focused on modernization that, in the post-war period, underwent a revision based on modern educational ideas and practices. Most importantly, however, it represents a historic first attempt to introduce a formal university-level design programme in Slovenia. (B. Zupančič)