Oak banquette and dark green chairs under an exposed brick barrel vault, terrazzo floor

The fluted terracotta bar counter with black stone top, rust chairs and shelving under the vault

Tables beside an arched window onto Jurčičev trg, oak panelling meeting the stone wall

Limewashed vaulted passage with round tables, looking toward an arched window

Banquette seating along the oak band, brick vault and stone wall above

Zlata ladjica

Interior for the ground-floor restaurant of Zlata Ladjica Boutique Hotel at Jurčičev trg 1, in Ljubljana's old town, set under the building's brick and stone vaults.

The Zlata ladjica inn has traded since at least the eighteenth century and moved into this building in 1926; the hotel above holds fifteen rooms across five floors of it. The vaults, the rubble stone and the brick were the given condition — the work was to put a working restaurant inside them without lining them out.

So the new build stops at waist height. Pale oak panelling runs as a continuous band around the room, carrying the banquette and ending where the masonry begins; above it nothing is added. Seating is deep green velvet, the floor is pale terrazzo, and the bar is a fluted terracotta drum with a black stone top. Light is a single thin line, run along the springing of each vault and left uncovered, so the arch is drawn rather than washed.

Client: Zlata Ladjica Boutique Hotel, Jurčičev trg 1, Ljubljana
Scope: Interior design, joinery, lighting, furniture selection
Setting: Ground-floor restaurant under brick and stone barrel vaults
Materials: Pale oak, green velvet, terrazzo, fluted terracotta, black stone