A House for Five Free Spirits
They are biking, ski touring, cross country skiing, hiking… and in general spend most of their time outdoors. They therefore do not need a lot of living space. Based on that, their plan was to build a small four-member family house at the backyard of their farm property. Seeing the site, instead of building a new house from scratch, we rather proposed to rejuvenate their old and beautifully preserved barn, that was not serving its function anymore. Hesitant at first, they embraced the idea. So much even, that they invented their own hashtag #staroinnovovsozitju” (“old and new in coexistence”) where they followed the renovation. And so, we started our journey. It proved to be a long and unique process where we could plan and draw only so much. Rather than trying to control uncontrollable renovation process, we chose to spend countless hours on the building site, exploring, consulting with the contractors, adapting and coming up with the impromptu decisions, attuned to the problems at hand as they arise. It all culminated in a beautiful dwelling for a family of five. Spacious and dynamic. Open in the summer and pleasantly warm and enclosed for cold winters. Apart from the new floating terrace spanning over the old wheelcart access ramp, from the outside one can hardly tell anything has been done at all. And since the old barn was a perfect fit into the surrounding village tissue, that is what we have been aiming for from the start. And what is also important to me is that the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (ZVKDS) recognised our efforts and selected our project as one of the exemplary showcases how that kind of renovations should be approached.
The project is located near Bled.
