The other day a friend and I were sitting in the kitchen talking about this and that and the conversation lead to a place where my home is in Slovenia. I mentioned a village and I told him that is not big. “Well, but there must be a street,” he said. “There is no street,” I replied. “It is just nine houses and a church”.

And so I came to the name for a blog: Nine Houses. Each has some association, which I’ll share with you in time.

But the essence of this place is a paradox. On the one hand, the look of these houses and their gardens conveys serenity and restraint, the sensation of being at the far end of the world, completely removed from speed of any kind. Secure.

On the other hand, underneath: chaos, asymmetry, passions run amok. History. Here, you are equidistant between Venice and Alps. Between calm and calamity, between great refinement and the coarseness of it.

It’s the contradiction that’s interesting, and finally inspiring.