House JM by SoNo arhitekti
House JM stands as a calm, contemporary single-family house in Ljubljana, Slovenia, shaped by the narrow urban plot around it. Designed by SoNo arhitekti in 2024, the residence stacks three levels to separate shared living, private rooms, and support areas while still reading as one clear volume. Inside, light, glazing, and a raised ground floor set a measured rhythm for everyday family life.
Morning light grazes the long façade as the house steps gently up from the flat plot, its bright base carrying a darker, quieter upper volume. From the street, the composition reads calm and assured, a rectangular form that answers the strict geometry around it.
This single-family house in Ljubljana stands in a flat, elongated lot hemmed in by neighboring single- and multi-family dwellings, so every move responds to that compressed setting. SoNo arhitekti organise the house over three levels, using a raised ground floor, a mezzanine, and an upper story to choreograph how family life unfolds during the day. Plan, light, and sectional shifts work together, turning a straightforward outline into an active sequence of living.
Entering The Raised Heart
Arrival takes visitors up to the elevated ground floor, where the first change in level already loosens the tightness of the plot. This raised plane pulls daily life above the street, creating a sense of privacy without heavy screens or fences. Within this main living realm, the plan flows around the mezzanine, letting conversations, movement, and views drift between zones while still giving each corner a degree of clarity. Light shifts across the day, tracing the long rectangular footprint and gently animating routines.
Sequencing Shared And Quiet Realms
The ground floor and mezzanine form what the architects describe as the house’s heart, a continuous volume where gathering, play, and shared meals take place. Above, the plan compresses into a more intimate arrangement with two children’s rooms and a serene suite for the parents, stacked neatly over the active life below. This vertical layering lets the family stay connected while granting each generation a quieter realm at the end of the day. Circulation rises cleanly between levels, so movement feels legible even in a compact urban condition.
Opening To Garden, Guarding The Street
Glazing patterns sharpen the organization, turning façades into a register of interior use and orientation. Toward the garden, larger panes of glass draw daily life outward, allowing the bright ground floor to stretch visually into the green edge. On the street side and the rear northeast elevation, openings tighten, shielding interiors from direct views and reducing exposure to less favorable orientations. This measured balance between openness and enclosure gives the family generous outlooks where they gather while preserving a sense of seclusion in more exposed directions.
Composing The Floating Volume
Façade materials and window proportions soften the building’s mass, breaking the rectangle into readable bands of activity. A brighter ground floor supports the darker upper level, which is visually pared back so that it seems to rest lightly above the garden. Refined glazing lines and controlled joints keep the volume compact, shrinking its apparent size within the surrounding fabric of houses and small apartment buildings. The result is a clear, almost diagrammatic form that still carries a sense of ease.
As day fades, the stacked levels glow in sequence, from the lively ground floor to the calmer rooms above, each lit band marking a distinct way of living. The rectangular outline never loosens, yet within it daily life shifts, rises, and settles in response to light, privacy, and family rhythms. On its long, narrow plot, the house quietly turns constraint into a measured choreography of rooms and levels that suits the city around it.
Photography courtesy of SoNo arhitekti
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