Type
housing

Client
private client

Address/Site
old townhouse, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Total floor area
220 m2

Materials
wooden floor, metal framed panels

Fillings
leather, textile, plexiglass, metal net, glass

Architect
SADAR+VUGA (Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Miha Miholič, Tina Hočevar)

Photos
Hisao Suzuki

An apartment in an old townhouse. The proprietor desires a contemporary, dynamic and relaxed lifestyle within the existing shell of walls and façade apertures. The proprietor only spends time there occasionally.

The atmosphere of the interior should interact with the dynamics of the proprietor’s lifestyle. The original shell with its central load bearing walls shouldn’t determine neither the organization of space nor the nature of the residential spaces.

The apartment is divided into four spaces of activity (sleep, eating and communication, work, sleep). In the centre of the apartment we place a closet (the closed part of the apartment) in which besides storage space also houses all the services.

Both the open parts of the apartment are connected through the closet. Both sides of the closet close with sliding panels with fillings of various materials, textures and colours. (crushed fabric, coloured plexi-glass, printed glass, metal net and leather).

Identical panels are placed along both surrounding walls with window openings. These panels become a new internal façade. The varied material effects of the panel fillings combined with natural and artificial lighting and different positions along two railings allow for creating a variety of atmospheres inside the apartment, depending upon mood, activity, number of people in the apartment, etc.

The proprietor thus has the mechanism of adapting the ambience to her current state of mind at hand.