The common characteristic of the traditional rural buildings is the location of the kitchen. It is always located, as in all traditional rural houses, in the middle of the house. The entrance into the house is actually the entry into the kitchen because it is the most important and central part of the building whether located on the ground floor or on the first floor. A characteristic motif is the longitudinal wooden corridor with wooden staircase. That corridor is sometimes enclosed, glazed, or covered in timber planks. The toilet is at the end of the corridor.
The layout of the house reflects the Alpine influence, which came to Gorski kotar from neighboring Slovenia. Croatian houses usually have one tract, and the rooms are placed between the two longitudinal walls; in the Alpine house there is a middle wall which forms a house with two tracts. The roofs are, therefore, very wide.
From the book : Kako narod gradi by Aleksandar Freundreich