Two Zagreb homes argue for building more carefully

Njirić+ arhitekti’s latest residential work is really a pair of arguments about how Zagreb should grow. Both houses belong to the practice’s partners, Hrvoje Njirić and Iskra Filipović, and each uses a home to test an idea. One sits in the city’s green foothills and pushes back against standard suburban planning. The other adds a new floor to an older house on Petrova Street, making the case for keeping more of what is already there.

Njirić’s Double-Villa Bukovac is the more polemical of the two: two attached dwellings spread low across adjacent plots instead of filling the site to its permitted maximum. The street side is austere, built in perforated brick, while the garden side opens up in glass towards city views. Inside and below ground, the house keeps surprising: a subterranean garage doubles as an art gallery and party space, and materials get lighter as the building rises, with cable tray mesh and long curtains softening the composition.

Filipović’s Petrova 140 works by contrast rather than refusal. A lightweight prefabricated steel addition with twin sawtooth roofs sits clearly apart from the older building below, yet stays domestic in scale. High-pitched ceilings and carefully placed openings pull daylight deep into the apartment, while the roof terrace and preserved trees help the extension feel part of the street rather than a replacement for it.

Neither home is public, but the story is worth reading if you like residential architecture that treats the city as something to work with, not wipe clean.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 6 October 2026. Read the original

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