Cukrarna was established in 1828 as a sugar refinery, the first real factory in the region and the largest sugar refinery in the monarchy in the mid-19th century. Its fate was sealed by a fire in 1858, which meant the end of sugar production in Ljubljana. In the following decades, soldiers, factory workers, artists and less wealthy Ljubljana residents swapped over and lived there. Their living conditions were far from adequate and did not improve in the 20th century so the sugar factory was considered a disgrace in Ljubljana in the 1980s.

In 2008, the Municipality of Ljubljana bought the building and the land, and between 2018 and 2021 the renovation was carried out according to the plans of Scapelab. With the opening of Cukrarna in September 2021, the Slovenian capital received a new venue for the presentation of contemporary art and a space where the processes of articulating thought, production and presentation of contemporary art projects take place – both in the field of visual arts and in the field of intermedia, performance, sound, music and other art forms.