The project responds to a sloping site with a 2 storey elevation to the rear and a stepping 3 storey elevation to the front. The rear of the house embeds itself into the landscape and a series of gabion walls provide a transition from the landscape into the main living spaces. The living spaces are split into two main areas; the kitchen eating and informal seating to one side and more formal living room spaces to the other. The living spaces are split by a central circulation core that connects all 3 storeys with an open vertical void. The stepping of the landscape continues though the central circulation space and exits through the front entrance to continue into the front landscape and entrance. The central circulation sets up a series of rotating views that look into the landscape to the rear, the living and study spaces and connect to a viewing gallery viewing. Views from internal rooms extend the series of views and frame elements of landscape within the plot as well as the dramatic wider landscape from the elevated position of the site.
A lower ground floor level is created by cutting into the sloping ground with a new retaining wall to the rear of the site and this retaining structure is, in turn, repeated as an artificial edge to the front elevation defined by an oak ribbon. This new articulated retaining wall wraps into the landscape and acts as a mediator between the ground plane and the main floating volumes of the house above.