HOUSE UNDER THE POPLARS

House Under the Poplars — Reframing a Murgle Archetype The House under the Poplars sits within Naselje Murgle, one of the most influential residential experiments of post-war Slovenia. Designed by architects France and Marta Ivanšek and built in self-construction phases between 1965 and 1982, Murgle became a quietly radical model of ecological, human-scaled living long before sustainability became a discipline. The settlement’s identity is defined not by signature architecture but by its collective low-tech intelligence: timber houses raised on simple strip foundations in marshland soil, ventilated roofs, porous street edges, and a planning logic guided by the geometry of existing trees. The whole neighborhood is in fact an imported Nordic ethic — the architects absorbed Scandinavian thinking during their time in Sweden, then reinterpreted it for Ljubljana’s climate, culture, and materials. Today, Murgle’s greatest challenge is its greatest value: how to renovate a settlement built by private owners, each constructing their own house from uniform urbanistic plans, without erasing the ecological and social DNA that made it exceptional? The project becomes a test case for the future of the neighborhood — a demonstration that renewal can upgrade performance while protecting the fragile architectural consistency that keeps Murgle one of the most desirable places to live. ________________________________________ Reconstruction as Continuity, Not Replacement The House under the Poplars originally stood as the final unit in a row of atrium houses, slightly detached and opening toward a park. This peripheral position created the only legitimate opportunity to extend the archetypally compact Murgle floor plan. Yet the original structure was unsalvageable: its façade boards and roof tiles were made of asbestos, and the timber shell no longer met contemporary requirements. The architects therefore took a decisive but culturally sensitive step: the house was carefully dismantled and rebuilt using cross-laminated timber, preserving the exact volumetric logic, proportions, and characteristic minimalism of the 1980s Ivanšek typology. The new structure is ecological, airtight, and thermally robust — but its architectural presence remains purposefully discreet. The aim was not to redesign Murgle, but to repair a fragment of it without visually disturbing the whole. The house now meets high contemporary standards while retaining the modesty, clarity, and human scale that define the settlement’s identity. ________________________________________ A Contemporary Addition Guided by Original Principles Because the western side faces a park, the extension could adopt a more open, experimental language — but always anchored in the original spirit. The new volume is conceived as a light greenhouse-like pavilion: a timber-and-glass room under an elongated roof that links old and new into a single silhouette. Two brick columns, identical to those of the original façade, act as anchors — a subtle signal that the extension belongs to the Murgle tradition. The vertical timber sidewalls create shelter and privacy, while the transparent façade opens fully toward the garden. A mature birch tree, one of the key identity markers of the site, was preserved; the foundation was adapted to protect its roots, continuing Murgle’s original “design with trees” philosophy. The resulting space functions both as a living extension and as a mediating climate zone — a contemporary reinterpretation of the low-tech environmental logic that made the original Murgle houses so successful. ________________________________________ A Prototype for the Future of Murgle This project is intentionally more than a private renovation. It proposes a broader approach: • Respect the archetype rather than overwrite it. • Use ecological contemporary construction where the old structures cannot meet today’s standards. • Preserve trees and landscape geometry as the primary design drivers. • Allow contemporary expression only in secondary volumes, not in the main silhouette. • Maintain simplicity, modesty, and human scale as non-negotiable principles. Murgle is a rare modern settlement where architecture, landscape, and everyday life form a coherent whole. The House under the Poplars demonstrates that the neighborhood can be renewed — not by copying the past, but by reinforcing its essential values and translating them into contemporary ecological practice.