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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