The Curious House is a new-built private residence in Zagreb, completed by Dinko Uglesic, Ina Vlahovic and Marijana Rancic of the Croatian architecture studio FORVM. Arranged across two storeys on a sloping site, the new house is set amongst a carefully planted landscape on a plot that’s set back from the main road. The architects have divided the accommodation up into three distinct components, a mirrored box, a metal-clad self-contained studio, and a bedroom wing that is cantilevered above the ground floor.
The garden facade of the Curious House
The mirrored box contains a glazed ground floor, with one façade opening up onto the sloping garden and the other onto a terrace with steps down to a lap pool, which runs beneath the seating area above. The floor plan incorporates the garage, above which is the studio, and the primary entrance, which opens up into a linear kitchen, dining and seating area adjacent to the terrace.
On one side the terrace faces the new planting
The garden facade terrace is raised above the swimming pool
The other end of the box houses the primary bedroom suite, complete with bath with a view across the slope to distant trees. The angled studio box, with its all-over metal cladding and mono-pitched roof houses a kitchen and bathroom alongside a raised bed and sitting area, both of which have views across the distant city rooftops. As well as the internal staircase, there’s also an external pathway leading down from the French doors and across the flat roof to the adjacent bedroom wing.
This component incorporates two en-suite bedrooms and a study, alongside a generous shelf-lined landing. Here you’ll find a straight staircase leading down to the living room below. The way the three elements are juxtaposed creates a series of pathways through the space, as well as unique views, and public and private areas. The programme and plan also conceal the house’s generous 400 square metre size.
As a result, the Curious House certainly earns its name, from the reflective ground floor that serves to amplify the plants and trees that surround it, to the elevated, discrete, upper storey components. Far-reaching views are combined with space, privacy, and an endless source of fascination.
The mirrored garden facade with the cantilevered bedroom box above
The metal clad element to the left houses the garage and a self-contained studio
The garage and a self-contained studio
The entrance approach to the Curious House
The house seen through the trees