Originally built in the early 1920s by engineer Miroslav Kasal, the townhouse exemplified Central European bourgeois refinement. Its richly ornamented façade, wrought-iron fencing, and lush garden expressed dignity and social aspiration. Inside, secessionist tiled stoves, a representative hall, and a Podpeč limestone staircase, crafted from the same material used by Plečnik, defined its distinctive atmosphere.
The interiors also carried symbolic depth. Frescoes of angels by painter Maksim Gaspari, Kasal’s friend, incorporated a compass and ruler, symbols linked to Freemasonry, of which Kasal was likely a member. Even small features, such as the holy-water stoups on the staircase, hint at esoteric meaning. These, along with decorative roller paintings and murals uncovered during renovation, reflect the villa’s experimental spirit and its owner’s expressive worldview.
Despite decades of neglect and unsympathetic post-war alterations, the house retained much of its original character. Approximately half of the windows were restored, while missing ones were reconstructed from historical documentation. Brass handles, stucco, and fragments of the garden fence were repaired; deteriorated murals were carefully revealed rather than erased. The renovation integrated these traces, allowing the villa to tell its own story—of bourgeois beginnings, wartime adaptation, socialist reconfiguration, and contemporary revival.
The design approach extended beyond structural and seismic upgrades. It functioned as a cultural reinterpretation—opening the villa toward the garden and inserting transparent pavilions that reintroduce openness into the formerly introverted bourgeois typology. In doing so, the house regains its dignity as a historical artifact while accommodating the fluidity of contemporary life.
Continuity, Change, and Contemporary Living
Reimagining a bourgeois villa today involves confronting its evolving identity over a century of social and political change. Once symbols of stability and status, such houses were often fragmented or neglected during the socialist period. Many were subdivided or repurposed, losing their architectural coherence. At Vila Mirje, traces of these transformations remain visible and intentionally preserved. Fragments of paint, unfinished details, and revealed decorative layers narrate a history of changing inhabitants and ideologies. The renovation embraces this complexity rather than concealing it.
Contemporary life introduces new demands—hybrid work, shifting family structures, and digital integration. The villa’s renewed spatial design accommodates these transformations through adaptable, porous spaces. It becomes a speculative framework—anchored in memory, yet responsive to emerging forms of living.
Garden and Pavilions
Two transparent pavilions extend the villa’s spatial and conceptual narrative into the garden. Constructed from interlaced 2 cm circular steel profiles, they form a delicate, woven mesh that defines volume through rhythm and transparency rather than enclosure. Depending on the angle of view, the density of the profiles alternately conceals or reveals, creating spaces that are at once open and intimate.
One pavilion connects directly to the villa’s interior, blending indoor and outdoor living. The second is placed where the original garden pavilion once stood, reinterpreting its memory through a contemporary architectural language.
Dialogue of Old and New
Wherever possible, original materials were preserved: restored windows, reintegrated brass handles, reconstructed stucco, and revealed patterns. The renovation emphasizes complementarity over mimicry—allowing new interventions, such as the pavilions and furniture, to articulate a contemporary layer that highlights the authenticity of the old. The renovation of Vila Mirje transcends preservation; it operates as an architectural narrative of continuity and transformation. By integrating bourgeois origins, socialist adaptations, and contemporary reinterpretations, the project turns the villa into both a witness to history and an active participant in the future of urban living.
Rooted in Mirje’s identity yet open to evolving ways of inhabiting, Vila Mirje stands as a dialogue across time—an architecture of memory, adaptability, and renewal.
