Pretpeć is a local term from Dubrovnik and its surroundings for a structure with an open hearth, originally with a floor of compacted clay, later paved with brick. Above the hearth hang komoštre - chains used to suspend bronze, copper, metal or earthenware pots. This space was once the heart of the home, where meals were prepared, warmth was shared and stories were passed on by the fire.

The house is located in an isolated landscape on the Pelješac peninsula, along the southern Croatian coast. The building was originally conceived as a summer kitchen (Pretpeć), functioning as an auxiliary structure to the main house. The intervention is therefore limited to a reconstruction within the existing footprint, position, and volume, without the possibility of expansion or formal redefinition. These constraints established the primary architectural framework. The small and fixed envelope required a highly controlled design process, in which spatial organisation, section, and built-in elements were developed simultaneously.

 Every dimension was considered in relation to use, movement, and inhabitation, allowing the limited volume to be fully activated. Rather than compensating for its reduced surface area, the project accepts scale as a given condition. It proposes that inhabitation along the coast does not depend on large floor areas or amplified architectural gestures. In doing so, it takes a critical position toward the ongoing overconstruction and spatial saturation of the Croatian coastline, where excess has increasingly replaced precision and restraint.