House in the Hill

The construction site was located on a terrain with a height difference of about four meters. Entry is from the upper level, while the lower level features a beautiful flooded meadow. Two structures rise above the upper platform: the smaller one houses guest apartments and technical rooms, while the larger one is the main house, specifically its visible street-facing part dedicated to public areas. This part of the house cantilevers over the lower floor, where the children’s rooms and the owners’ bedrooms are located. The lower half of the house is almost entirely embedded in the terrain and therefore not visible from the road. This layout influenced the structural solution. For example, to support the massive cantilever of the upper floor (with projections on both sides of 3.5 meters), a counterweight beam was included in the foundation, recessed by 1.5 meters.

To address the issue of natural light for the “underground” floor, a zenithal window was cut out. Another window exists on the roof of the upper part of the house. Because the roof has a minimal slope towards the center, rainwater collects on the roof and flows down the sloping surface of the window, directed into a gutter that channels it for watering plants on the terraced slope.