Skupaj Arhitekti Turns a Pannonian Farmstead into a Slovenian Hilltop Retreat

A 170-square-metre house completed in 2025 on a ridge in the Radgona-Kapela Hills of northeastern Slovenia reinterprets the linear plan of the traditional Pannonian farmstead for contemporary domestic life. Ljubljana-based Skupaj Arhitekti designed the project, with Tomaž Ebenšpanger (UM FGPA) as lead architect.

The clients commissioned the house as a retreat from the capital for occasional stays. According to the architects, it "brings quiet, daylight, weather and views into everyday life."

The setting shaped the design. The Radgona-Kapela Hills are a landscape of settlements along ridgelines, vineyards on sunny slopes and woodland in valleys. Siting, orientation and topography guided the placement of the house and a smaller outbuilding, which together reinterpret the spatial organization of local farmsteads.

The design draws on practical knowledge embedded in vernacular building: careful siting, clear organization, economical construction and shelter. The linear arrangement of the traditional Pannonian house becomes a continuous living space that forms the organizing spine of the plan, with individual rooms opening directly onto it. This move reduces circulation space and connects the interior to the landscape. Views unfold through successive spatial depths, across a covered terrace toward the meadow and horizon.

Together, the house and outbuilding define an entrance space that briefly contains the view before opening toward the landscape. The architects describe enclosure and openness as the shaping forces behind the sequence of approach, entry and occupation.

The architectural form is deliberately familiar. An elongated volume beneath a pitched roof relates to the scale and silhouette of local buildings, while its contemporary character emerges through a slender roof edge, carefully placed openings and precise material junctions.

The roof extends beyond the enclosed volume to create a sheltered outdoor space along the house. Reinterpreting the traditional covered veranda, known locally as a gank, it connects interior, terrace and garden. Deep eaves provide shade and protection from rain, extending daily life outdoors into contact with the changing atmosphere of the landscape.

The outbuilding defines the approach and accommodates ancillary functions and parking. Most existing trees were retained, and new planting reinforces the slope's character, softening the boundary between garden and landscape.

Construction is a prefabricated timber frame with cellulose insulation and wood-fibre boards. Clay plaster finishes the interior; coarse mineral render covers the exterior. The palette combines contemporary timber construction with local traditions of wood, earth and rendered surfaces.

The clay plaster does more than finish walls. It helps moderate indoor humidity, and its textured surface diffuses daylight and retains traces of hand application, giving rooms a character shaped by light, tone and touch. Precise joints allow the materials to retain their inherent qualities.

Material differentiation assigns each volume its own expression. The rendered house forms a quiet, unified volume, while vertical spruce boards give the outbuilding a simpler character. Shared proportions and siting establish coherence between the two.

The architects frame the project's significance in terms of cultural continuity: it translates local building knowledge into contemporary architecture through its ridge-top setting, linear plan, pitched roof, deep eaves and considered materials. As they state, it "demonstrates how a small residential intervention can sustain the continuity of a cultural landscape."

Clear construction, restrained form and articulated thresholds produce qualities the architects say are experienced through occupation: shelter, unfolding views and direct contact with the surroundings. The house, they conclude, finds its significance in these everyday experiences, "inviting a slower pace of living and a more attentive awareness of place."