Hayrack Apartments Social Housing

The site is the edge of alpine town Cerklje (near the Ljubljana Airport) with beautiful views to surrounding fields and mountains. On the site there is protected 300 year old lime-tree. The plan of the building therefore is L-shaped and embraces a green area around the tree. Also mountain views are opening from this courtyard therefore most of apartments have beautiful views.
Apartments are social – they were sold to Slovenian Housing Fund for young families at price 900 EUR/m2 that is extremely. Therefore the budget had to be very limited (600 EUR/m2) and materials are simple and economic.
The landscape and villages in the area remained unspoiled with many examples of traditional architecture such as old farms, barns and hayracks.
The concept of the façade is taken from the hayrack system – wooden beams follow traditional details and patterns. Traditionally farmers store grass and corn on beams, on the housing one can store flowers or other balcony decoration.
Apartments are of different sizes - from 30m2 studio flats up to 4 room apartment of 80m2. Bigger apartments are developed on the corners of the building and have corner opened and nicer views. They are made of economic but quality materials such as wooden oak floors, granite tiled bathrooms and have large windows with external metal blinds. The concept of structure is made in a way, that floor plans are flexible, since only structural walls are those, that separate apartment shell from the rest of the building. All other inner walls are non-structural.

Roof tiling is made of grey eternite tiles in caro-texture that copy traditional slate roof. The roof is pitched roof but cut on the ridge – there flat roof appears. The pitched roof partly functions as 1m high blind that covers all the installations which are hidden behind – chimneys, external air conditioning, kitchen ventilation etc.
Façade is plaster of tree different colors, windows are PVC but colored from outside and wooden elements are of spruce-wood that is cut and glued for better resistance.

Sustainability issues:
The balcony layer runs all around the block. The wooden ornamental construction elements in front of the balconies and loggias are designed in the same sense as traditional hayracks; wooden objects in function of storing and drying the grass. They provide first entry temperature zone to the main living and sleeping areas and also creates shading to the balconies.
Additional aluminum shading panels are placed on the outer sides of the winter loggias and balconies.
2. The service and communication spaces are reduced to minimum thus the daylight is provided on the shafts. The monthly basic energetic and service costs are very low; so also economic for the inhabitants since the apartments are social type.