House With Blocks sits within a context of intensive and uncontrolled residential development, close to the town of Jezera on the island of Murter. Indeed, the surrounding environment features oversized and visually inconsistent buildings with no clear architectural criteria. Within this setting, the project adopts a deliberately calm and structured approach.

A Home Built Around Food and Togetherness

The architects designed the house for a chef and his large family, a home where food, gathering, and togetherness sit at the heart of daily life. The volume takes shape as a simple, monolithic assembly of blocks with uniform and rhythmically placed openings. This composition conveys stability and clarity amidst a sea of visually undefined neighbouring structures. Rather than competing with the surroundings, the house introduces order, scale, and dignity.

A Façade That Follows the Floor Plan

The organisation of the floor plan expresses itself directly on the façade, since every interior space follows a logical layout. The openings are not decorative; instead, they follow function, so each room gains its own view and a level of privacy.

The First Floor: A Kitchen at the Centre

The first floor forms the heart of the house, where a large kitchen with a spacious dining table occupies a central position, emphasising the role of the host and the culture of shared meals. Opposite the kitchen, a central fireplace provides warmth, atmosphere, and additional heating functionality. Adjacent to the kitchen, a pantry and support spaces complete the floor, while the living room, with a work corner and library, rounds off the communal zone.

The Second Floor: A Family Square for the Children

The second floor belongs to the children, with three spacious bedrooms that open directly onto loggias, ensuring light, ventilation, and personal space. A large shared bathroom also opens onto the loggias, which allows natural drying of laundry and good ventilation. At the centre of the plan, a common room for play, rest, and gathering forms a kind of interior “family square,” with its own opening and access to the loggia.

The Third Floor: A Private Zone for the Parents

The third floor belongs to the parents, with a spacious bedroom, an en-suite bathroom, and an additional area for rest and leisure, which together create a private and secluded zone. Every space opens onto recessed, covered loggias that reinterpret traditional Dalmatian luminaires, forming transitional semi-open environments between interior and exterior.

Architecture as a Response to Uncontrolled Construction

Within an environment defined by uncontrolled construction, the house acts as an architectural response of clear geometry, controlled proportions, and considered functionality. In this way, the house shows how, even in a challenging urban context, architecture can establish order, calm, and identity through measure, function, and a carefully designed relationship with the family who lives within it.