"The client wanted a contemporary house with a spacious and bright living area," architect Blaž Kandus told Dezeen, but the building needed to be orientated so the wall of glazing running along the length of the living room and kitchen overlooked the town of Novo Mesto downhill to the north-west.

This meant the living areas would receive little sunlight from the east in the morning so the architects added a row of south-east-facing windows along the edge of one of the building's two mono-pitched roofs.

Split levels following the slope of the hill divide the interior into two halves, with the bedrooms raised up behind the living room.

"There are no corridors in the house to make almost all the floor area usable," said Kandus. Instead, doors lead into each of the bedrooms from the rear of the living room.

On the client's request, the house has a prefabricated timber frame and is clad in vertical strips of larch.

A concrete garage is dug into the ground in front of the house, with a cantilevered roof that shelters a driveway in front.

Slovenian architects Kombinat also recently completed a house with shutters that move like a sliding puzzle.

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Photography is Matjaž Tančič and Klemen Ilovar.

Here's a project description from Kombinat:

House MJ, Novo Mesto, Slovenia

House MJ stands on the outskirts on a once undeveloped patch of meadow between residential houses and forest edge. The house stands detached from the road, on the slope higher up, overlooking the town of Novo Mesto.

Due to the views and the configuration of the plot, the house opens towards northwest. With the slight split of levels it adapts to the terrain and at the same time separates the living from the sleeping area.

The house is without corridors, the rooms can be entered from the shifted landing, which is part of the living area. The shape of the roof allows the morning sun from the southeast to light the entrance, bathroom and the living room. The construction is prefabricated timber frame with larch wood facade.

The garage with the carport in detached from the house and stands at the street. It is dug into the slope so as not to obstruct the views from the house. Traces of wooden formwork on the exposed concrete establish a dialogue between the garage and the house.

Architecture: Kombinat.
Tomaž Čeligoj, Ana Grk, Blaž Kandus, Alenka Korenjak, Tina Rugelj, Tjaša Mavrič

Location: Novo Mesto, Slovenia
Plot area: 1.495,00 sq m
Floor area: 247,11 sq m
Project & construction: 2009-2012

Site plan - click above for larger image

Ground floor plan - click above for larger image

Section - click above for larger image

The post House MJ, Novo Mesto,
by Kombinat appeared first on Dezeen.

The house is situated at the foot of the Karavanke Alps, overlooking the Ljubljana basin in Slovenia.

The architects added an outer staircase and a concrete extension with a roof terrace.

The ventilated vertical wooden facade replaces a dark timber exterior.

The original dark timber can now be seen on the inside wall of the new staircase.

When the window shutters are closed the house resembles a closed wooden box, with only the glazing of the concrete extension remaining open to the landscape.

A garage with a green roof stands on the other side of the house.

We recently featured another project in the mountains – a black wooden house in the Swiss Alps.

See all our stories from Slovenia »

Photographs are by Miran Kambič.

Here's some more information from the architects:

House HV is situated at the foot of the Karavanke Alps, overlooking the Ljubljana basin. It represents a transformation of a weekend house – a two-storey wooden hut with a concrete ground floor – into a family home. The owner wanted to extend the living area in the form of a winter garden and a carport.

To stay within the existing scale of the surrounding buildings, the additional volumes are separated from the basic house with a gap, forming the entrance on the one hand and an outer staircase on the other.

They are partially dug into the slope to become part of the landscape, with a green roof above the carport and a terrace on top of the living room extension.

The basic volume of the house was extended only with a new staircase and service rooms on the ground level.

The existing thermal insulation on the inner side of the wooden hut was removed to expand the inner space and the entire house was faced with new insulation and a wooden ventilated facade.

The timber of the wooden hut – once an outer wall – can now be seen on the staircase.

The original house with dark timber exterior

Sliding wood shutters can close the entire house, transforming it into a unified wooden volume on a wooden terrace.

Ground floor plan – click above for larger image

Then only the large glazing of the winter garden opens to the magnificent view of the landscape underneath.

First floor plan – click above for larger image

Architecture: Kombinat: Tomaž Čeligoj, Ana Grk, Blaž Kandus, Alenka Korenjak, Tina Rugelj
Location: Bašelj, Slovenia
Plot area: 570,00 sq m
Floor area: 176,00 sq m
Project/completion: 2007-12

Section – click above for larger image

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by Kombinat appeared first on Dezeen.