Istria has a special place in the hearts of many people.
The sky that is almost as pure and blue as the sea, the magic of misty mornings hovering over the beautiful landscape, the climate that can warm your soul up early in the year and stays like that until late fall, the smiles of the relaxed local people, the Mediterranean food in all its tastiness.
This year, 30 years are passing since my parents were lucky enough to have stumbled upon this tiny house. When I think of my summer holidays the stones of the façade, the cold water and the bus rides to the beach flash through my mind. I was a truly lucky child and it was impossible to experience that without having a piece of my heart stolen.
The house was left alone for long stretches of time and inevitably deterioration happened, nature took over. I didn’t want to let the house go completely, so with my family we agreed that I can renovate it. While the idea slowly turned from a vision to a somewhat perceivable reality, many ideas sprung to life.
What is my version of sustainability, this much (ab)used word that’s become so popular in the last years?
I would like to give people the opportunity to experience how beautiful life can be in a small house in a remote village on the margins of nature. I would like to create a place that will be comfortable, healthy, peaceful and will encourage the creativity of people with its simplicity.
What are the aspects that I find important, what are the goals?
- focus on quality and beauty of basic forms
- use natural materials as building elements
- use traditional building techniques combined with contemporary knowledge to create a comfortable living environment
- implement local knowledge to renovate the stone walls and employ local working force
- heat the house with locally sourced wood in a cast iron stove
- show that composting toilets really work
- purify grey water using wastewater treatment with aquatic plants
- sensible (re)use of water (gray water, rainwater)
- use environmentally friendly, locally produced materials (soap, shampoo, washing detergent, oil, vinegar, wine, olives,…)
- make a shelf of books amongst which anyone can find something to entertain their soul with as they sit in the garden watching the sun set in the vineyard
- promote designers and artists through a ‘living gallery’ – the objects that will be in use in the house and around it will be carefully selected products from people who we believe in – everything will be available for purchase, in case you never want to part with a specific object again (furniture, decoration, cosmetics, art, jewellery,…)
- use local plants to create a small permaculture garden that will produce herbs for cooking
- enable the experience of living in the nature: a bed under the stars, a cold shower in the garden, a space to put up a tent or just a sleeping bag
- give back to the community in the form of spreading the knowledge through workshops and restoration of dry stone walls that are characteristic for this landscape
- work only with people who are magnificent at what they do, who respect work and the efforts of other people
- use the space for creative writing workshops, yoga classes or tai chi chuan weekends
- engage contemporary methods of connecting people from all over the world (in the spirit of Home Exchange, Airbnb, Couchsurfing, Eatwith,…)
- learn about local plants and organize educational field trips in the local area using the gathered knowledge to prepare a meal together (with the plants we’ll pick on the way!)
- find and mark paths connecting the house with some of the sightseeing pearls in the vicinity (Dvigrad castle, Lim bay, the Sosići quarry with the ancient Maklavun bronze-age tomb, the old abandoned Kanfanar-Rovinj rail road, many local winemakers, numerous climbing sites,…).
In future posts, I plan to delve into many of these specific topics, since learning about each of them showed me some important aspects of dealing with natural materials and sustainable approach to building.
