Počivašek Petranovič

House Mraz . Celje

A glass pavilion for living in the garden

On a hidden plot we have found a typical cultural landscape – a lush garden with old fruit trees and superb views on the river Savinja, the old castle of Celje and the surrounding hills. The client’s wish was to build a single-family house: on the ground floor an apartment for the parents and separated on the first floor – two rooms for their children, who are students. With this in mind, we designed the house as a glass pavilion that will allow the clients to live within the garden and its surroundings.

The narrow and long plot shapes the form of the house. The program is organised consecutively. Nearest to the driveway, there is the service area in a closed volume, a carport and the entrance to the house. The sleeping and living areas are organised consecutively, ending with the living room, which is on a lower terrain and therefore higher and spatially emphasised. The apartment on the ground floor is entirely enclosed with floor-to-ceiling sliding windows.

The steel construction of the house permitted an open ground floor that opens to the garden through its big sliding windows. There are three wooden volumes for the service areas – the bathroom, the powder room and the wardrobe. Sliding doors connect them and subsequently define the spaces – the apartment can be one big, open space or it can be divided into separate rooms.

The entire ground floor is paved with terrazzo with river gravel, the volume’s walls are assembled with panels veneered with oak wood, the fireplace is covered with natural stone and the load bearing columns are covered with high shine stainless steel.

The garden was kept intact as much as possible and with a few additional fruit trees it blends into the existing cultural landscape.

The facade with its big sliding windows follows the idea of living in the garden, and the highly reflective cladding reflects the surroundings. The house is dematerialised and it constantly changes, reflecting the daylight and the seasons.
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