House D94

Built in the 1970s, the house kept its appearance, and subtly blends into the homogeneous Ljubljana suburbs. It is surrounded by a spacious garden, where the owners planted a variety of fruit trees. Key changes took place inside the house. The living space was moved from the upper floor to the ground floor, where new, large window, previously garage door, connects the interior living space with the terrace and the garden. The connection between the interior and exterior living spaces is supported by the use of the material. Brick floor continues seamlessly from the interior onto the terrace.

The design of the building did not connect the indoors to the large garden. The entire ground floor had a low ceiling, and was intended for services: a garage, a boiler room, and a storage room. Living area was on the first floor, windows were small, there was no balcony. Bedrooms in the attic were somber, lined with dark wood, and divided into small rooms. The existing windows were divided into three sections – we kept this in the new design. By demolishing a part of the slab between the floors, we made a double height space with many windows and direct exit to the garden. By keeping all of the existing openings, a raumplan space occurs in the new central living space. By changing the relation of living and sleeping quarters, the family has a living room with kitchen, workshop and home office on the ground floor. Children's rooms on the first floor connect to the living room via playroom on the gallery. This flexible space can become a library, workplace, or study, when they grow up.

The main sustainability choice was to keep the existing house, although it did not have any architectural values. We kept as much of the existing substance as possible, all of the well made and well preserved structures, such as walls, and parts of the roof structure. Use of new materials was limited, as we did not wish to close the newly liberated spaces. Very few new partition walls were made using concrete bricks. All of the furnishings were made in locally sourced ash and larch wood. Clinker brick floor from a nearby factory was chosen for its haptic surface, colour and durability. Main issues occurred when underground water breakage challenged the execution of the foundation consolidation. This also influenced the financial construction and timeline. Change of plot layout, that moved the driveway from the south of the garden (now the terrace) to the north, presented the main bureaucratic obstacle. The general village plan also dictated the height of the new fence and hedge.