Living in style: PURES­Leben Holiday Homes

Host Dietmar Silly from Oberhaag in Sou­thern Styria likes to call himself a “far­mer’s son”. Because of his origins, this is true, but careful — this, of course, is an under­statement: The qua­lified cellar master initiated a long-term project with PURES­Leben in 2004 and since then has led it to success with thoughtfulness and per­se­verance.

Four of his PURES­Leben houses have found their way into our list of recom­men­da­tions over the years. And Dietmar Silly, the man with the clear vision, has matured during this time into a kind of super­visor in all things relating to Sou­thern Styrian hos­pi­tality culture and archi­tecture. Gourmets, nature lovers and dog lovers have been among his regular guests for years and find places here that radiate peace and awaken inner strength.

In an interview with Ulrich Stefan Knoll in February 2021, Dietmar revealed how the idea for his life’s work came about, how he defines his motto “In the Luxury of Sim­plicity” and what his guests can expect.

URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR: What is the greatest joy that your role as a dream house deve­loper and host has brought you?

Dietmar Silly: More than 20 years ago, an idea was born that gra­dually became a success story: For a long time, I had had the desire to bring visitors closer to the unspoilt nature of my country and the most beau­tiful places in the region. I have been rea­lising this dream since 2003, partly because I have always had a passion for living, eating and drinking. Since then, I have loved to share this longing with inte­resting people, who app­re­ciate these values as much as I do. Dis­co­vering a dream place and creating a place of inner strength for our guests always brings a sense of ful­filment — I can’t imagine any­thing more rewarding…

URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR: Dietmar, what tipped the scales in favour of your project at the time — was it always clear to you that you would one day be a host with a passion for archi­tecture?

Dietmar Silly: After suc­cessful years as cell­armaster at Schloss Seggau, the largest and oldest winery in Styria, I wanted to create some­thing new and sus­tainable and combine all my pas­sions in a single project. It cer­tainly also plays a role that I was, so to speak, born into hos­pi­tality and brought up with it — my family has been running the Silly Winery for over 100 years. Inse­pa­rably linked to this has always been our Buschen­schank, one of the typical Styrian wine taverns. Here, locals and guests alike meet to enjoy a glass of wine and sample small deli­cacies from our own pro­duction, as well as from the region — and spend some pleasant hours in an informal atmo­sphere. Allowing guests to have this carefree time has been some­thing I have known since childhood. I very much enjoy being able to make these moments pos­sible and being a kind of catalyst in the process. It is very similar with the houses and their archi­tecture. The focus is always on what we have to offer that is unique and what the guests really need. Of course, this also includes deciding what they don’t need, what dis­tracts them from the essential.

URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR: What is your under­standing of high-quality archi­tecture?

Dietmar Silly: In the holiday homes I plan and build, I realise my love for archi­tecture and design. Cen­turies-old buil­dings merge with modern ele­ments, as in the Stadl Altenbach and the Stadl Wuggitz. Or some­thing new is created in a unique design lan­guage, as in the Wein­gar­tenhaus Sausal and in the Stadl am Tunauberg. Each house has to be con­sidered indi­vi­dually, of course, because in each project we are guided by the local con­di­tions and the natural sur­roun­dings. In the case of an older building, it is important to us to pre­serve these roots and transform them into a unique living expe­rience. However, the fol­lowing applies to all houses: We combine timber from our own forest with old wood, natural stone, glass, clay and canvas; the custom-made fur­niture in each case is sup­plied to us by the best local craftsmen.

All our premium houses are exclu­sively equipped, they have a private wellness area with outdoor pool, as well as a sauna and the­r­efore offer a restful refuge to relax in, both in summer as well as in winter. What we call “In the Luxury of Sim­plicity” is a really essential element of our phi­lo­sophy — whether in house con­s­truction, in the vineyard or in the kitchen: The aim is to refine to the utmost the simple, tra­di­tional and honest basic pro­ducts, always in harmony with our sur­roun­dings and tra­dition. It is also a great challenge to leave out the super­fluous — as we know, one of the most dif­ficult skills. Here, too, we con­tinue to learn — from house to house…

URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR: In your own winery and family-run farm, you produce regional produce for the guests, which are an important part of your phi­lo­sophy of life. What exactly do you mean by that?

Dietmar Silly: My brother Gerald runs our Silly Winery. As with building a house, we also focus on quality in viti­culture and work con­sis­t­ently to bring the soils, their minerals and the distinctive cha­rac­te­ristics of the indi­vidual loca­tions into the bottle in the best pos­sible way. This is how we produce wines for which our guests hold us in high esteem. For example, Sau­vignon Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Mus­catel, Morillon, Welsch­riesling and Rosé. The range is com­ple­mented by pro­ducts from our small farm, which my parents run in a very sus­tainable way. Dif­ferent varieties of fruit, vege­tables and lettuce are allowed to grow until they are ready to be har­vested and pro­cessed directly on the farm. What we can’t produce our­selves is sup­plied by farmers in the region.

It is part of our phi­lo­sophy to share the taste of Sou­thern Styria with our guests. That is why our guests have the option of booking their holiday home with catering. We then deliver homemade Styrian spe­cia­lities directly to the house. Or guests can visit us in our kitchen (“Kuchl”) in the main house in Oberhaag.

URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR: As long-term goals, you have put the active pro­motion of sus­tainable tourism and the topic of “con­scious enjoyment” high on your agenda. What can we expect in the future?

Dietmar Silly: We are planning to expand our range of houses by adding only a few archi­tec­tural gems. Instead, in the future we will focus even more on quality — in all aspects. We want to enable our guests to enjoy more than just unique holiday moments in carefree comfort. To achieve this, it is necessary to develop our motto “In the Luxury of Sim­plicity” a little further — in order to be able to live and implement it even more com­pre­hen­sively on all levels in the future.

URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR: What does that mean in con­crete terms?

Dietmar Silly: First of all, my passion for PURES­Leben is ongoing. It has to be said that the success story would have been unthinkable without the support of my family, first and foremost my brother Gerald, my parents and my children. In the future, too, our goal will be to initiate decision-making pro­cesses jointly within the family — as in every good sym­biosis. Curr­ently, we are working inten­sively on the expansion of our organic farming in addition to the upgrading of the existing houses. In the future, the growing demands for more sus­taina­bility and our goal for even more con­scious enjoyment will unite in the best pos­sible way. Time never stands still for our three-gene­ration project; the exciting journey con­tinues.