Vila Saborsko

The reference to mountain architectural styles is obvious but so is the determination to define a contemporary language to bind all the project’s aspect into a whole: the vernacular techniques and more innovative solutions define fluid, hybrid spaces where comfort is top priority in what is intended as a holiday home.

Siniša Zdjelar and Antonija Plavotic, founders of the ZDL Arhitekti firm, set out their approach to design: “Every empty space is full of potential. Like a bowl that contains shapes, flavours, smells and stories.” And here at Saborsko, in the Croatian hinterland, there are a vast range of inputs to be embraced, first of all the landscape with its reminders of the power of nature in the form of mountains and waterfalls, criss-crossed by trails used by the region’s hikers. 

“Our first task is to define the context,” Zdjelar explain. “We have to identify the influences present and their relations to each other, to the project and to the concept. We want our design to be inclusive and empathetic, creating unique, honest architecture.”

With offices in Rijeka (Croatia) and Belgrade (Serbia), ZDL Arhitekti is staffed by a group of architects from many different European cities: Zagreb, Trieste, Venice, Milan, Ljubljana, Novi Sad and Belgrade itself. This multicultural character supports the development of the creative processes with widely varying cultural inputs.

“We tackle themes of complexity, diversity and conflict in our projects with the aim of guiding architecture back to principles of simplicity, authenticity and harmony, the distinctive features of our poetics.”

“To maintain this home’s strong links to the surrounding landscape, we worked very hard on the choice of materials,” the firm’s founders explain. “The laminated wood that predominates as construction material and as cladding for the main body of the house dialogues with the large surfaces covered with porcelain stoneware, which is well attuned to our vision and is also low-impact. Its sustainability lies not just in the form of the material itself but also in the processes used to manufacture it.”

The Marazzi collections were installed to define the entire outdoor area: the paving around the pool (Mystone Quarzite collection, Platinum colour, in 50x100 cm size with thickness 20 mm) and the lining of the pool itself (Mystone Bluestone collection, Piombo colour, in 30x60 cm size).

The rough surfaces of the surrounding mountains are also referenced in the bathrooms, where the Mystone Limestone collection, in Sand colour, covers the bathtub wall and the floor of the shower, while the stone effect of Mystone Ardesia in Bianco Colour – in 75x150 cm size – completes the flooring of the wellness area.

Stone-effect textures make way for marble in the shower wall covered with large-size slabs of 120x278 cm in the shiny black finish, run through with light vein patterns, of the Grande Marble Look collection’s Saint Laurent colour.

The only digression from the Stone and Marble Look ranges is provided by the lovely walls in the Green colour from the Crogiolo Lume series: its glossy, “flawed” brick tiles (6x24 cm) generate unique reflections in the space that houses the Jacuzzi tub.

The surfaces of the living room and kitchen, flooded with natural daylight through the large windows with their mountain views, are finished with all the beauty of sedimentary rocks thanks to the Mystone Ardesia collection, installed here in Cenere colour (75x150 cm), which gives way in the large roofed patio to Mystone Quarzite in Platinum colour in the 60x120 cm size.


Ph. Damil Kalogjera