A rural house for guests and workshops

From a vacant rural house to a lively place for guests and organising workshops: Using floor plans to explore possibilities. 

There is an increasing number of big vacant masonry-built houses in Croatia, especially in rural areas. This is a story about one such house near Zagreb, that got a second chance. We jumped in when the clients wanted to explore various possibilities for turning the house into a space that can receive guests and various activities (workshops), from team-building in the context of eco-agriculture, to personal development and more.

We developed numerous floor-plan options, and here we present three of them:

The first one features a big socialising space on the first floor (where one can cook, dine, work at desks, socialise and have fun, either in an open-space or in separate spaces), a quiet social attic (for circle activities or activities on the floor), with rooms in the rest of the house.

The second option is a hostel with rooms on the first floor, a socialising attic, and a ground floor that comprises the kitchen and the sanitary spaces (which can serve the backyard tent-dwellers too).

The third option features two separate rooms and two apartments. The common kitchen is on the ground floor, while the intimate common room is in the attic.

We helped the clients explore the possibilities of the given space in relation to the limitations posed by the bylaws regarding different kinds of tourist accommodation. The goal was to imbue the house with a new life, of the sort that would be dear to the clients and their guests, while being economically sustainable. We took care of the clients' wishes and the beautiful natural surroundings, while trying to limit the investment into the renovation by envisioning simple interventions.