丨克罗地亚丨Arhitekti Počivašek Petranovič

Architects:Arhitekti Počivašek Petranovič

Area:711m²

Year:2022

Photographs:Urban Petranovič

Category:Houses

Project Team:Davorin Počivašek, Aleksi Vičič, Urša Gantar

Landscape Design:Zaš Brezar

Country:Croatia

Text description provided by the architects. We found the typical Istrian site - a small settlement at the end of the ridge. The hilly part of Istria is characterized by "refugal" towns and settlements on exposed positions, peaks, and final ridges. Buildings of the settlement are small-scale houses, arranged to follow the relief of the ridge. The client wanted a comfortable »classical« country house, where they could spend most of their time. The program has more than 700 m2 of net surface area.

We were interested in preserving the context of the traditional small Istrian villages, so such a large house was too big for us in one volume. We were searching for a typology that enables the best experience of the space.  Living with the connection to outdoor space, Mediterranean atmosphere, enjoying the garden; these were the focus points of our research. Pavilion is associated with the idea of open building in a park, often for pleasure and relaxation. We divided the program into three volumes, which are placed consecutively from south to north, and are connected on the ground floor. The entrance building is in the center (middle) with a large entrance square in front. Due to the shape of the terrain, you enter the first floor, which is beside the entrance, and also a study and master bedroom. Through the double-height lobby, you move down the round stairs to the ground floor, where there is a living room and a second study.  The north building houses a guest room on the ground floor, and on the first floor, there is a garage and service areas.

To the south is the main building – pavilion. There is the kitchen, a dining room, a large loggia with a sundeck and swimming pool in front of it. We give special importance to the pavilion, since this is where you spend most of the time. Space here is higher and has large openings to all three sides. The importance of the pavilion is also emphasized by the shape of the buildings and the facade. With a flat roof and facade made of local stone, which radiates the spirit of Istria, the pavilion stands out from the other two, anonymous buildings, which have a pitched roof and a facade made of plaster.  Openings on the pavilion are protected from the strong summer sun with sliding wooden panels that can be regulated,  referring to classic wooden blinds on houses.

Three buildings are placed in an irregular composition, one after the other, and they follow the relief of the ridge and the shape of the terrain. They create different spaces, connections, referring to typical Istrian towns. In this way, we tried to preserve the traditional silhouette of the settlement.

Landscape design creates a different ambience. The entrance gravel square is surrounded on one side by Stone pine trees, which form the street facade. In front of the pavilion there is a large sunny platform with a swimming pool, in front of the middle house there is a small park with pine trees, in front of the guest house there is a larger deep garden with a Lebanese cedar in the middle, behind the house there is a small bosco. All selected vegetation is Mediterranean, mostly fragrant plants,  which add a sensory layer to the experience and upgrade the abstraction of architecture.

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