STEEP SLOPE HOUSE

The boomerang-shaped plot falls 12 meters from north-west to south-east. Plan­ning reg­u­la­tions make large parts of the irreg­u­lar­ly shaped 1500 sqm site unbuild­able. We were left with a steep area at the cen­tre of the site.

The ambi­tion has been to, as sim­ply and ratio­nal­ly as pos­si­ble, cre­ate an archi­tec­ture that sub­verts the trick­i­ness of the steep site into an advan­tage and a dri­ving force in the design. A two-sto­ry vol­ume with entrances on each floor jut out from the slope. At a 90-degree angle from that vol­ume a low­er, one-sto­ry vol­ume hous­ing a sauna and a com­mon room is sit­u­at­ed in the land­scape, its roof func­tion­ing as a ter­race accessed from the upper floor. Togeth­er the two vol­umes frame a pool and a stone-clad pool deck. The lay­out man­ages to cre­ate mean­ing­ful out­door spaces as well as min­i­mize dark inte­ri­or spaces.

The upper floor of the main vol­ume is divid­ed length­ways into two sim­i­lar­ly wide bands, one hous­ing more pri­vate func­tions: bed­rooms, bath­rooms, walk-in-clos­et, the oth­er, fac­ing a bal­cony wrap­ping around the south­ern and west­ern façade, hous­ing kitchen, din­ing and liv­in­groom. The floor gen­tly drops from the kitchen to the liv­in­groom cre­at­ing a dis­tinc­tion between the dif­fer­ent func­tions and vary­ing ceil­ing heights. The ground floor hous­es fur­ther bed­rooms as well as wash­ing facil­i­ties, a com­mon room, anoth­er bath­room and a garage.

The south façade opens up towards the view and the sun through big even­ly spaced and sized slid­ing doors. The north façade faces the street and has a more closed appear­ance. All facades are clad in black, burnt pine, so called Shou Sugi Ban.