12/08/2026
A challenging site shouldn’t limit what your home can become. In many cases, it’s the opportunity.
With this home, the hillside setting was something I wanted the design to embrace rather than fight against.
The existing property already had a fantastic position, but the opportunity was to make much more of it — opening the home towards those views, bringing in more natural light and giving the house a contemporary identity that still felt completely at home in its surroundings.
Larger areas of glazing now allow the homeowners to experience the landscape from inside the house, while the new feature gable and extension give the property a stronger, more modern architectural character.
But one of my favourite parts of the design is how we dealt with the levels.
Rather than treating the change in height from the garage to the entrance as a problem to solve, it became part of the architecture. The new rendered staircase, terraces, landscaping and entrance sequence work with the hillside, creating a much more considered journey into the home.
And that’s really what good design on a difficult site should do.
Not flatten out the challenges — use them to create something better.
The result is a home that feels modern without feeling out of place, makes far more of its incredible setting, and gives an existing property an entirely new lease of life.
If you own a home on a sloping or challenging site, don’t assume the site is holding you back.
It could be the very thing that makes your project special.
