Project Overview
The L-shaped plan is one of architecture’s most versatile and underexplored spatial moves. At its best, the L creates two things simultaneously: a sheltered outdoor room in the interior angle, protected from wind and open to the sky; and a building form that can navigate a sloping site without the awkward compromises of a rectangular box placed on changing ground. This project places an L-shaped house on a south-facing slope, using the form to its full advantage.
Design Philosophy
The two arms of the L are treated as distinct but related buildings. The longer arm, running east–west along the contours, contains the social spaces of the house — living room, dining room, kitchen — with a continuous south-facing glazed wall that captures the full panorama of the slope below. The shorter arm, perpendicular to the first and stepping down with the hillside, contains the bedrooms and service spaces. The junction of the two arms is the entry threshold: a compressed, sheltered point from which the full spatial sequence of the house opens out.
The interior angle of the L faces south and slightly west, creating a sheltered terrace that is the primary outdoor living space. It is protected from the north and east winds by the body of the building itself, and it receives sun from mid-morning to evening. A low stone retaining wall at its southern edge defines the terrace from the slope below, and a shallow water feature in the angle of the L marks the meeting point of the two volumes.
Technical Specifications
Structure: Reinforced concrete retaining walls at the uphill edges of both arms, with timber post-and-beam construction for the downhill elevations. The contrast between the solid, heavy uphill wall and the light, glazed downhill facade is the primary spatial and tectonic idea of the house.
Facade: Uphill (north/east) elevations: board-formed concrete, minimally glazed, functioning as a retaining and thermal mass wall. Downhill (south/west) elevations: full-height glazing in a timber curtain wall system, with deep overhanging eaves to control solar gain.
Roofing: Low mono-pitch roof on each arm, draining outward to the south and west. Green roof on the bedroom wing, planted with low sedum and grasses that blend with the natural vegetation of the slope.
Floor Area: Social wing approximately 110 m²; bedroom wing approximately 95 m²; total approximately 205 m² plus 40 m² of covered terrace.
Blueprint & Floor Plan Notes
The plan is single-storey throughout but occupies three distinct levels as it steps down the hillside. The entry level contains the social wing (kitchen, dining, living) at the highest point of the site, with direct access to the terrace. Two steps down: the master bedroom suite, occupying the upper end of the bedroom wing, with its own terrace facing south. A further three steps down: two additional bedrooms, a bathroom, and a utility room at the lowest level of the house, where a secondary entrance connects to the driveway and parking area below.
The section is the key drawing for this project. It reveals the stepped relationship between floor levels, the changing ceiling heights (from 3.2 m in the living room to 2.4 m in the bedrooms), and the way the retaining walls tie the building to the hillside. The structural engineer’s drawings show the concrete retaining walls acting simultaneously as foundations, thermal mass, and retaining structures for the soil behind them.
SPANTONE 