© Marko Zoranovič

Architects: Arhitektura d.o.o.

Location: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Project Team: Peter Gabrijelčič , Boštjan Gabrijelčič, Tomaž Budkovič

Investor: private

Construction year: 2008-2009

Photographer: Marko Zoranovič

While renovating the facade, the owners of an old Ljubljana villa, built in 1913, also wanted to enlarge the ground floor space, and to connect it to the garden by constructing a new terrace. A 5×5m flexible outer room was added to the villa for this purpose, allowing for a variety of uses. It is designed as a ‘magic box’ – as a cube whose vacant space is delimited by metal edges containing movable screens and a roof plane.

ground floor plan

© Marko Zoranovič

By means of remote control, a great variety of spatial geometries may be created, including automatic adaptation of the space to outdoor factors. A new outer staircase with a projecting roof and a garden fence were built. All the new elements were added to the villa in a very concise way, so that there is a clear difference between the pre-existing and the added.