House stands at the edge of a village near Murska Sobota,
last in the row in the last village street. Clearly defined
plot opens to three sides - to the field in the south, to
a glade with an apiary in the east and a sunlit acacia wood
to the north. A high green barrier to the west divides the
house from the omnipresent present-day architecture. Large
for urban notions, the plot is over 3000 m2 in size, extended
deep to the north while narrower across. Plot size offers
a rare opportunity for a sprawling single-floor composition
that may generate more than one courtyard ambient, typical
in a traditional house in Prekmurje. In addition to plot size,
the key part in composition development was the readiness
of the residents to open their living environment to broad
fields and allow deer to peek into their bedrooms. Thus, a
house with two garden spaces was developed, forming an open
"S" letter, with a shady morning garden to the northeast facing
the bedrooms, and a sunny day garden to the southwest. Both
ambients meet in the house's living space, both energies converge
here - the tranquillity of the cool woods and the warmth of
the meadow.
The composition of the house is derived from the creation
of exterior ambient rather than interior composition. The
house is a ribbon, with functions arranged in the most expected
order. Entrance pergola with a "corn shed" forms a portal
- a frame through which we enter into the family's life. Here,
there home begins. Of course it begins with a garage, followed
by technical rooms, after the first bend there is a wardrobe
and then a large living/working space. Next bend turns north
into a large wardrobe area that also serves as a foyer for
bedrooms and bathrooms. Arcade hallway in front of the bedrooms
creates a mental barrier between wild nature and rooms and
turns them into veritable spaces of rest. The house opens
uncompromisingly to the south, catching the sun's warmth three
quarters of the year. When it gets too hot, the shades are
lowered and the house cools from the wood.
Passive and active energetics systems are built into the house,
resulting in expected low running costs. The owner takes pleasure
in checking the physical responses of the house to different
exterior and interior impacts, so in a way the house serves
us all as laboratory of construction physics and energy systems.
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