After eighteen months of design, consultation, and careful negotiation with a protected coastal setting, ground has broken on one of our most ambitious residential projects to date. It is a milestone worth pausing on — and a good moment to explain what the project is, and why it took the shape it did.

The site

The house sits on a steep hillside above a quiet bay, a site as constrained as it is beautiful. Access is limited to a single track, the geology shifts from rock to loose soil within a few metres, and a protected habitat runs along the shoreline below.

Those constraints did most of the designing. The buildable area was small and awkward, so the house had to go tall rather than wide, and every decision about foundations and drainage had to respect the ecology downhill. We spent nearly a year in survey and consultation before we felt we had earned the right to build here at all.

The design

A concrete and glass volume steps down the slope, cantilevering over the fall of the land so the footprint touches the hillside as lightly as possible. Living spaces open to the water; service and sleeping quarters tuck into the earth behind, where the ground keeps them cool and quiet.

The cantilever is not a gesture for its own sake — it lets us leave the most sensitive ground undisturbed while still reaching the view. Structurally it was the hardest thing to resolve, and the part of the project the whole team is quietly proudest of.

Building responsibly

Working above a protected shoreline means the construction method matters as much as the finished building. Ground is being handled to prevent runoff, deliveries are timed around the tides and the access track, and the trades on site have been briefed on the habitat they are working above.

What's next

Groundworks and foundations run through the coming season, with the structural frame expected before winter and the envelope watertight by spring. We'll share progress from site as the building takes shape — including, we hope, the moment the cantilever first steps out over the slope.