At the time when Montenegro was still unknown to uninvited guests and pirate marauding was part of everyday life, the local population found fertile land and a safe haven in the mountainous hinterland, with easy access to the seashore. Gradually, these secluded territories, especially the sunbathed plateaus above Luštica Bay, were inhabited by several large families whose surnames still adorn the names of the villages. The old houses built from local stone and rock during that era proudly stand the test of time to this day.

Our story begins with the discovery of small-scale stone house ruins in the village of Đuraševići. The ruins were subsequently rebuilt to our designs and converted into a house with a courtyard. More similar projects followed suit, including a small ruin nearby and the adaptation of two adjacent stone houses, all resulting in an organic and artisanal look and feel with functional spatial units and numerous original solutions. Within the same year, we worked on the design of two more edifices: the first, a ruin that would eventually have a communal function and include a gallery space and meeting room suitable for team-building events, and the second, an empty plot.

The dense greenery and rugged terrain in Meštrovići yielded the discovery of more ruins. After consulting aerial photographs and historical maps, we concluded that the remains of the stone structure corresponded to a single-family house with an auxiliary unit and a front garden originally built in the 19th century or earlier. The house also had a back access to a goat path and the forest. We located its inheritors and duly completed the purchase. Our first milestone achievement was building a 600 m-long gravel road that leads, through dense vegetation, directly to the location of the house.