House 300 / KSA Architects

The House is situated on a small quarter-acre plot, steeply sloping down from the access road and facing a small valley, a waterbody in the middle, and a rising cliff on the other side of the plot. It has many disadvantages! To enable the house to be seen from the road, more than half the site would have to be filled with outside soil, and a new retaining wall of around 10m height would have to be built across the site to retain all of that soil. Of course, this was the client's first choice! But wiser counsel prevailed, and it was decided to keep the natural slope as it is. But there was still a problem. Building along the natural slope would put the house below the level of the cliff on the other side, and inhabitants on the lower floor would not be able to see the sky over the cliff on the other side or even the mountain skyline—and that was a problem that needed solving.