SET INTO THE LAND
To keep the ridge height of this two-storey house low (which was a planning stipulation) and to navigate the sloping site, the building was set into the land. “We knew we would have to use traditional materials and find a way to build the house into the surrounding landscape to reduce its massing and impact,” explains Leila Westrope of Roderick James Architects. The building is a hybrid construction of concrete and timber, with an insulated concrete block lower floor sunk into the ground.
You might have to dig deep - into your finances, your grit and the ground - if you build on a sloping site but the challenge be worth it, says architect Allan Corfield
IMAGE: C/O RODERICK JAMES ARCHITECTS / THE GITCOMBE ESTATE; PHOTOGRAPHER MATTHEW HERITAGE