Family House in Ljubljana, Slovenia – a Pocket Size Villa
The site and building regulations demanded a very site specific scheme. The living quarters and the “garden” are situated on the top (terrace) floor of the villa and not on ground floor. The end result is a hybrid between a modernistic town house (villa) and a terrace apartment with a rooftop garden.
This home for a family of four is situated on the north side of a small park. The park is bordering on a kindergarten and an elementary school, next to a lively food market, all situated in a dense urban area in the northwest part the city of Ljubljana. The main reason why the site was not yet developed was its size. The size of the site is just a little over 300 m2.
The site and building regulations demanded a very site specific scheme. The living quarters and the “garden” are situated on the top (terrace) floor of the villa and not on ground floor as one would expect. The end result is a hybrid between a modernistic town house (villa) and a terrace apartment with a rooftop garden opening towards the park on the south.
The main entrance is on the elevated ground floor situated in the south west corner opening in the direction of the market. It is also a few stairs lower than the rest of the first floor. This way a better connection between the street level and the main entrance is achieved. On the other hand, the rest of the first floor – sleeping quarters and bathrooms are discretely elevated a few stairs above the level of the entrance and the street.
The living quarters are on the second – terrace floor. The entrance to the villa and the living floor are connected with a wide and open staircase thus visually and spatially connecting the two together.
Terrace (garden), living room, dining room, kitchen and a small study (library) are composed as a collage of different spaces within a single open floor.
The character of this floor is defined by the large floor to ceiling glass walls on the south side connecting the terrace (garden) with the interior. Small openings witch are carefully placed frame the views in all other directions. The terrace floor is smaller than the floor below thus leaving enough space along the façade to create a vertical garden all around the house on this floor.
This vertical garden is made with intertwined steel wires and vine plant. In the parts where this garden is easily accessible there is a small herb garden close to the kitchen and a Japanese garden along the staircase to enjoy as one descends or ascends the stairs.
Because of its size the Villa is mainly white. On the outside the villa is clad in simple white contact façade with the entrance part clad in terrazzo.
The terrazzo changes to natural stone (travertine) in foyer and later in wooden floors (teak) in Living quarters. All the interior walls as well as built in furniture is white with some elements clad in teak wood as floors.
